Team GB star vows to avoid Mbappe and Djokovic at Paris Olympics for good reason
Josh Kerr says he’ll be the most antisocial athlete in the Paris Olympic Village.
While fellow members of Team GB make a beeline for selfies with Novak Djokovic, LeBron James and Kylian Mbappé, the world 1500m champion will be walking the other way. It’s not to say Kerr doesn’t gaze up at the sporting firmament - it’s just that one day, he intends to be up there himself.
“The Novaks, the LeBrons, they bring that validity and a special atmosphere to the Olympics,” says Kerr. “But for me, the Olympic Village is less of a zoo.
“I’m not going out of my way to try and find people I want to talk to. People get ill there. I don’t want to socialise that much. I’m there to do a job.”
Team GB are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring Kerr and company are given every possible tool to do their jobs, with hayfever their latest target; performance staff are mapping out the journeys athletes will take from the village to their competition venues with a view to reducing possible contact with pollen.
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“We had bloody, like, English breakfast tea sitting in there ready for us,” remembers Kerr of his Olympic debut in Tokyo. “They brought in shedloads of stuff to make us feel at home and make sure that we’re ready to go.
“I don’t know anyone that wasn’t jealous of Team GB at the Olympics. That’s just how it is. The set-up is fantastic and you know that every single medal Team GB gets, it deserves.”
Those teabags and the lack of distractions, due to the pandemic, seemed to help Kerr play the role of bolter to perfection. He ran a clever tactical race to win 1500m bronze in a personal best time, a podium finish that he valued most for the way it released pressure.
Josh Kerr celebrates winning the men's 1500m final during the World Athletics Championships in 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)“It was huge for me,” says Kerr, said Kerr, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing him to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support. “Getting that first medal out of the way and being able to hand that back to the people who have helped you, it shows the sacrifices were worth it.
“For me, it was just knowing I can perform when the pressure’s on. The medal makes a huge difference to the way you prepare for the next championships and I find that these championships bring something to me that no other race can.
“I love training but I wouldn’t say I’m as good at training as I am at running a major final.”
For Kerr, training is in the hands of the man he calls ‘gaffer’ - coach Danny Mackey and the Seattle set-up that delivered him global glory in Budapest last summer.
You won’t find them blood testing or taking on double threshold sessions. The trust is in a lower mileage programme - typically 60 to 75 miles a week - played out in tempo sessions, longer Sunday runs and an ‘internal gauge’ that tells Kerr when he’s pushing too hard. It delivers, among other things, astonishing range. This is a man who can sprint past Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the home straight and run a 61.51 half marathon.
Next - he hopes - Olympic gold.
“Look, I got into the sport to be the best in the world, I got into the sport to be an Olympic champion,” he says. “I’ve done one of those things. Back in the day we had the likes of (Seb) Coe going back-to-back but since then, there haven't been many back-to-back world and Olympic champions who hasn’t been done for drugs.
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“I can say I’m addicted to the feeling of trying to be Olympic champion, I can talk about that openly.”
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