Katarina Johnson-Thompson

“My mum was a dancer. She would tour the world with a group, and she had me in a dance class when I was still in a nappy. They told her to come back when I could walk.”

“Beijing was a huge slap in the face, and it forced me to look at myself. I have to realise that this is my life.”

“They're just my weaknesses. Everyone is just constantly talking to me about it. It doesn't help.”

“I can't be disappointed with my first gold in a senior championship, and to score 5000 points, which only one other woman, the world record holder, has got over, I am satisfied.”

“There will be mental worries with the long jump before Rio, but I know I can get through it. It's just getting my confidence back. I know I have a big jump in me.”

“I'm in awe of any Olympic champion, for sure.”

“I should have a better CV, and that's knocked me into believing that I have to grab these opportunities while I can.”

“I actually hated dancing. My mum used to have to bribe me to go by buying me things. A year before I stopped going, I was going to go for an audition with the Royal Ballet. It turned out I was a year too young. Because I was tall, they thought I was older. But before I had the chance to go back, I quit.”

“Thankfully, I found athletics. My mum didn't like it at first, but the funny thing is that, now, she's the biggest athletics fan out there. She's a real expert, and she's got all the heptathlon books.”

“It's a huge step up from the European Indoors to then being a gold medallist at the World Championships.”

“I'm very wholehearted. I want to concentrate on one thing in my life at one time.”

“I want to win medals for myself.”

“I remember going down the tunnel into the Olympic Stadium and getting a glimpse of all the people and hearing all the noise, all the people shouting for us. I'd seen Usain Bolt on the warm-up track, and then, as I walked into the stadium, I sort of realised how big it was!”

“When it comes to peaking at the right time, I have to thank my coach Mike Holmes: he is a genius.”

“You can be in the shape of your life, and then injury strikes. So you have to grab your opportunities.”

“I can always go back to education.”

“As soon as I could talk, I chose shorts to wear.”

“It's very easy to run a good 200 m. after an appalling shot put.”

“My granddad used to mind me at weekends, and if the game was on, and you wanted to get across the room, you had to crawl under the TV. So I've always been a Liverpool fan, and meeting Steven Gerrard was massive for me. He knew who I was before we'd even said hello!”

“I always said I wanted an Olympic medal. It's the pinnacle of any athlete's career.”