Partner Andrew Pozzi helps convince two-time world heptathlon champion that retirement isn't on the cards for a while yet.

“I would never say never,” says Katarina Johnson-Thompson with a smile. The two-time world heptathlon champion is responding to the question of whether or not she might ever be tempted to run the London Marathon.

“The competitiveness and all this energy has to go somewhere in the future. There might be a point when I say: ‘Oh go on, let me try it’ and I’ll see if it’s harder than a heptathlon.”

That point isn’t likely to come for a while yet, though. She isn’t planning on retiring from top level combined events competition any time soon. 

Johnson-Thompson is 33 and has put together a body of work that includes those two world titles, world bronze last year, two consecutive Commonwealth titles and an Olympic silver, not to mention world and European gold medals indoors. Having also come back from major surgery and repeated injury issues, there aren’t many points left to prove.

“If I stop today, I'm really happy with what I've done already,” she admits. But that doesn’t mean it’s about to happen. 

The Liverpudlian is very much looking ahead to a summer that presents the opportunity for her to become the first woman to win three Commonwealth heptathlon gold medals in a row (Denise Lewis won two, as did Mary Peters in the pentathlon) and to win a first European medal outdoors.

Those outings in front of a home crowd don’t look being a final flourish, though. Johnson-Thompson’s partner is Andrew Pozzi, the sprint hurdler who was world indoor champion and a Commonwealth medallist himself. He retired last year and, having seen him step away from the sport, was there any part of her that was tempted to do likewise?

“He [Pozzi] has actually convinced me to carry on for longer,” she says. “He says everyone should be an athlete for as long as they can. The grass isn’t as green as it may seem on the other side. He still trains, he still runs hills with me on Saturdays. He’s still got that urge as an athlete to be competitive, but it’s just there’s no outlet for him so I think he's probably convinced me the other way to try and stay as long as I possibly can.”

She adds: “I'm really happy with what I've done already so that gives me a lot of freedom to just be able to enjoy the privileged position of what I've been able to do. I've been able to do a sport I love for my whole life, so I'm very happy in that respect.” 

Having taken the difficult decision not to compete indoors this winter, in large part due to vagaries and requirements of World Athletics’ ranking system, Johnson-Thompson is raring to get into action once again. 

After the turmoil of that Achilles rupture in 2020 that needed surgery, and subsequent injury issues, the comeback that brought her a second world title in 2023, the Olympic medal that she craved a year later and another world medal in 2025, represented an extraordinary turnaround that has left her much more at peace. 

The years of experience have also brought with them a greater skill in being able to monitor and manage workload, to emphasise recovery and to listen. “Throughout the years, I've understood how to properly listen to my body and not push through a rep or stop the minute I'm feeling something, and not lose as much time,” she says.

The partnership with coach Aston Moore has been a fruitful one, too. 

“He got me in a very bad place,” says Johnson-Thompson. “In 2022 he got me probably at my most unfit and unmotivated place and he's definitely helped me turn that around and have a better story about how my career has gone. 

“His whole demeanour and approach is something that works really well with me. It's always calm. He's always looking out for a little laugh. He's a very thoughtful person. When he says something, you know that he's taking time to think about it so his word means a lot to us athletes.

“He is just a steady person in my life and I feel like I always do best as an athlete when I want to do well for the coach and I think all his athletes want to do well for him. He’s a really good coach.”

There are few circumstances that Johnson-Thompson hasn’t come across or dealt with in her career – “There are a lot of learning curves” – and she has found herself advising younger athletes as and when they seek her counsel. Does that mean coaching might be in her future, too?

“I don’t think I’d be a good coach,” she says. “I’ve always been an athlete who trusts my coach to give me my training and I don’t ask any questions, so I don’t think that’s a good coach!”

She will be on hand, however, to deal out plenty of encouragement to the runners at this year’s London Marathon. She has never experienced this British celebration of distance running before but will get her first taste of it on Sunday (April 26) when, in her work with sponsors Radox, she will be at their Mile 23 cheer zone. 

And though she has never sampled the feeling of covering 26.2 miles, Johnson-Thompson vividly remembers experiencing a marathon finish line during the time when she lived and trained in France. There are, it seems, parallels between that and her chosen event. 

“I saw a couple of marathons by accident when I was in Montpellier and I get really emotional because, when people cross the line and they look like they've achieved something, I love seeing that moment,” she says. “That’s why I love the heptathlon. You’ve been competing for two days and, the moment that you cross the line in the 800m, I don't feel like I can replicate that in any other events in athletics. But when I see the marathon runners cross the line, I see the same euphoric joy. I think that’s why I get emotional.”

There is another common thread to both. As the thousands of runners prepare to put their training into practice on London’s streets, Johnson-Thompson knows exactly where the source of the greatest confidence comes from. 

“Knowing that you've done the work,” she says. “That's the only thing that I can really rely on on the day – knowing that I've done the training, and I've done everything I can. There's not a magic thing that can convince you otherwise. You just need to have done the work.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is an ambassador for Radox, the Official Bath & Shower Gel Partner of the TCS London Marathon, and will be cheering on fans in the Radox Cheer Zone on Marathon day, Sunday April 26