Advertisement

Katarina Johnson-Thompson exclusive: Rio Olympics already tainted by doping scandal

The highly-rated British heptathlete hopes people will concentrate on the action once the Games get underway as the build-up has been overshadowed by the extensive Russian ban

Katarina Johnson-Thompson exclusive: Rio Olympics already tainted by doping scandal

British medal hope Katarina Johnson-Thompson has told Yahoo Sport that the ongoing Russian doping scandal has taken the gloss away from the build-up to this summer’s Rio Olympic Games.

At the age of just 23, Johnson-Thompson will carry the hopes of her nation as he strives for gold in the heptathlon in Rio next month, but she admits the excitement that should be building ahead of her trip to Brazil has been diluted by the ongoing crisis gripping all Olympic sports.

After an extensive report condemned Russia for orchestrating a state-sponsored doping programme across a variety of sports, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) then came under-fire for failing to ban all Russian athletes from Rio 2016.

The IOC decision to allow the governing bodies of each individual sport to take a decision on allowing Russian athletics to compete in Brazil has cast a further cloud over the Olympic movement, with Johnson-Thompson fearing the storm has taken the gloss off the Games.

“People should never forget that there are clean athletes out there and the Team GB team are a great example of that, but stories like this do harm to all sports in the Olympics,” she said.

“I have not spent too much time thinking about this story as I have enough to worry about getting ready to compete at the Olympics, but it is a shame that this is the story everyone is talking about in the run-up to the Games.

“I just remember what it felt like to be part of London 2012, the feel-good factor and the smiles on everyone’s faces, and these are not the emotions people are experiencing heading into Rio.

“Hopefully that will change when the Olympics get under way and people start to focus on the sport and not the negatives around it.”

[THE BIGGEST DRUGS CHEATS IN THE HISTORY OF SPORT]

Johnson-Thompson believes the IOC were faced with a tough call as they were forced to decide whether to ban every Russian athlete from Rio 2016, with the fear that innocent athletes would get caught up in a blanket ban contrasted by her emotions for athletes that have had their Olympic dreams shattered by rivals who were later proved to have taken drugs.

The latest and arguably most damaging drug scandal to rock athletics looks set to see a host of Olympic medals stripped from their initial recipients and redistributed, with one of Johnson-Thompson’s on-track colleagues among those who has been a victim of a doped Russian athlete.

“I am good friends with Goldie Sayers and what happened to her at Beijing in 2008 must be so tough to take,” says Katarina, as she reflects on the story of the British javelin thrower who is set to be handed a belated bronze medal after silver medalist Mariya Abakumova was found to have been part of the Russian doping programme.

“I know how hard I am working to win a medal at the Olympics and to have that dream to be taken away from you by an athlete who has played by different rules would be so tough.

 

“I’m waking up every day thinking about getting that medal in Rio and the work I have put in for so many years is all working towards the dates in my diary when I will be competing in these Olympics. It would be horrible to think you might miss out for the wrong reasons.

“But, to an extent, I can see the other side of this as well. It’s a tricky situation because there will be some athletes that have done nothing wrong and they will get caught up in a ban for an entire country.

“Telling an entire nation of athletes that they cannot go to the Olympics is a big decision and we can only hope that everyone who is taking part in Rio is doing so as a clean athlete. This is what all of us clean athletes want to believe anyway.”

Johnson-Thompson heads to Rio as one of the favourites for a heptathlon medal alongside her fellow Brit and defending Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, with the event taking place in the Olympic Stadium on August 12-13th.

You will be hearing more from our interview with Katarina during the Olympics