Jo Pavey WARRIOR

Jo Pavey has her eye on a final – her sixth! – Olympic Games, so is training hard for Tokyo 2021. We met her to look back over her 23-year career in international athletics

Words Rachel Ifans

2020 was a year that would have tested anyone’s positive resolve but talking to Jo Pavey brings on a warm feeling of optimism. Something about her longevity, her retrospective view on her phenomenally successful sporting career, her ongoing drive and her utter love of running makes you feel better about the future.

“I want to have a go at trying to make a sixth Olympic games, but I know it’s a really big ask,” she says. She’s been doing a lot of trail and road running recently but is now re-focusing on her main target, namely the Olympic trials in June next year, so she’s looking to get back on the track as soon as possible in 2021.

She’s pragmatic about what’s ahead: “It’s hard getting those track times down; I know how much work that’s going to take. I don’t think there will be that many opportunities to get a qualifying time beforehand so it will likely come down to the actual trials in June 2021.” She admits, “There are so many girls in the country who are running really well – which is great to see – so I know it’s going to be tough for me.”

I need to make sure my body adjusts to the track surface and I need to get used to running around in a tight circle again

She talks about her training plan for the start of 2021; the first step is getting back to the track on a week-by-week basis. “I need to make sure my body adjusts to the track surface and I need to get used to running around in a tight circle again. It’s not something that your body is naturally designed to do and it does create an injury risk compared to running in a straight line,” she explains. “But, as one physio once said to me years ago, it’s basically my job description to run around in a tight circle!”

Jo Pavey (née Davis), if you didn’t know – where have you been? – is one of our most successful athletes, a long-distance runner who excels at 5,000 and 10,000m distances. She’s a five-time Olympian and is the only runner and track event athlete to have competed in five games. She’s 47 now, a mother of two, and still hungry for a final Olympics place – her sixth – in Tokyo 2021.