Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson banished her Olympic demons with an extremely hard-earned heptathlon silver at the Paris 2024 Games, falling just short in her bid for a glittering gold.
The 31-year-old - who is the reigning world champion in the event - came into Friday's 800m finale trailing leader and two-time defending champion Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium by 121 points.
Johnson-Thompson therefore needed to beat the Rio and Tokyo champion by around eight-and-a-half seconds to end her reign of heptathlon dominance, and she rose to the challenge in exceptional fashion.
The Liverpool native ran a personal best of 2:04.90 in the 800m, but Thiam's time of 2:10.62 was enough for a third successive gold for the 29-year-old, who completed an exceptional heptathlon three-peat.
Despite agonisingly missing out on the Paris 2024 crown, Johnson-Thompson was in extremely high spirits after crossing the Stade de France line, having finally forced her way onto the prized Olympic podium.
What a phenomenal effort from KJT 🫶
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 9, 2024
A sensational silver in Paris 🥈
Nafi Thiam did enough to secure an historic third Olympic gold medal.#BBCOlympics #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/vRfsac1dBC
Johnson-Thompson "so relieved" to win Olympic medal
The 31-year-old totalled 6844 points, just 36 shy of Thiam's winning total of 6880, while the Belgian's compatriot Noor Vidts clinched third place with 6707 on the board.
The USA's Anna Hall led from the front throughout the 800m and finished first in the final event with a time of 2:04.39 - 0.51 seconds quicker than Johnson-Thompson - but the American could only place fifth overall.
Further down the rankings, Jade O'Dowda finished in 10th place for GB with 6280 points, having placed fifth in her 800m heat with a time of 2:12.12.
"I can't even describe the words but I'm just so relieved and so happy that I have an Olympic medal to add to my collection. It was the only one I didn't have and it's been so hard getting back to this point," Johnson-Thompson told BBC Sport.
As well as finally making the podium at an Olympics at the fourth attempt, Johnson-Thompson became just the fifth British woman to medal at a multi-sport event at the Games, and the first since Jessica Ennis-Hill's Rio silver eight years ago.
Ben Knapton
