Norwegian 400m hurdler and coach Leif Olav Alnes discuss to Cathal Dennehy in regards to the artwork of overcoming critical damage and pushing the boundaries of chance
We didn’t speak about this earlier than the Olympics – or certainly on the Olympics. Because the world’s media pressed Karsten Warholm in Paris for the rationale why he’d been convincingly overwhelmed by his nice rival, Rai Benjamin, the Norwegian selected to not go there.
He didn’t lie, however he did omit some key context – not eager to be the athlete who raises the defend of excuses after arising quick. However the actuality? Warholm struggled by way of final 12 months with a continual hamstring tendon situation, one which restricted each the amount and high quality of his coaching.
“These two work hand in hand,” he says now. “The quantity comes first after which comes the standard. You may’t do all of the coaching you need and, largely, you’ll be able to’t do it on the tempo you need. I might run with it, however it was not superb.”
Warholm stored the problem quiet all season, solely telling the Norwegian media within the autumn. Whereas it virtually definitely hampered his efficiency in Paris, the place he ran 47.06 to complete second to Benjamin’s 46.46, you gained’t discover him pointing to it as the rationale he didn’t win.
And Warholm’s coach, Leif Olav Alnes, is simply the identical. “Complaining and making excuses after dropping doesn’t assist, it doesn’t change the outcome,” says Alnes. “And you must do not forget that, in your profitable day, your opponent might submit quite a lot of excuses. It doesn’t matter. You must stay with it. You win otherwise you be taught.”
Warholm, sitting alongside him, nods in settlement.
It’s 10 years for the reason that pair started working collectively, and whereas there have been loads of lows amid the numerous highs, 2024 proved a difficult 12 months for each as a result of tendon situation. “When it’s a must to scale back the tempo, it’s a must to scale back the quantity [of training] and it’s a must to improve the time between the instances you stress it,” says Alnes. “So, it’s truly biting you in every single place.”
Nonetheless, they did all they may, with Warholm going to Paris because the (slight) favorite after clocking 46.73 to win in Monaco a number of weeks earlier than. Given the problem he’d been coping with all 12 months, his silver medal might be seen by many as a triumph. However Warholm is just too aggressive, and too completed, to see it that means.
“I really feel like I misplaced that race,” he says. “I nonetheless thought, on the day, that I might do it. It wasn’t a great race for me in any respect. In fact, within the Olympics, it stinks a bit extra however I’ve gotten over it in that sense. It fuels the fireplace inside you.” Warholm stated he “tousled hurdle 9”, having to succeed in for it on account of fatigue, however is aware of he didn’t produce what he was able to on the day – even when his preparation performed a component.
“I didn’t really feel what I did was consultant for my degree, however it’s the secret,” he says. “Attending to a championship with none hassle can also be part of the duty, and I couldn’t do this. I’ve to see it as a failure [because] that occurred – and it’s on us.”
In fact, one other damage quickly adopted, Warholm tearing his different hamstring a month after the Video games in a head-to-head 100m race in Zurich towards Mondo Duplantis. “So I went from having half a hamstring to 2 halves,” he laughs, including that he believes the second occurred on account of him compensating for the primary.
Warholm spent seven weeks rehabbing that within the autumn earlier than returning to full coaching and, with a clear invoice of well being coming into 2025, he and Alnes opted to bypass the indoor season. That was primarily so they may lay down an enormous basis of coaching, with Alnes saying they basically “moved the indoor season to China” – Warholm opening his racing 12 months with two Diamond League races in Xiamen and Keqiao.
He gained each, smashing his 300m hurdles world greatest with 33.05 in Xiamen and clocking 47.28 in Keqiao regardless of clattering two limitations. He says the Xiamen run confirmed “the velocity is there over the hurdles”, whereas Keqiao was a “very messy race”.
Warholm will tackle his two greatest rivals – Benjamin and Alison dos Santos – on the Oslo Diamond League on June 12 and in Stockholm three days later, the trio clashing over 300m hurdles within the former and 400m hurdles within the latter. They hardly ever meet exterior championships, their brilliance usually witnessed in isolation, with every making statements to one another from the world over. As Warholm stated in Keqiao: “You all the time need to use each event to ship a message. At the moment, the message I despatched is that the potential is superb if I can clear up the errors.”
He is “fairly positive” the 33-second barrier will fall in Oslo and, in reality, his coach thought it will go in Xiamen. “I knew he was in that territory,” says Alnes. “Nevertheless it was a little bit chilly, even for a Norwegian.”
Alnes says this a part of the season is about “letting the work develop – taking the foot a little bit bit off the pedal, to attempt to really feel a little bit lighter within the physique.”
Warholm, after all, spends a lot of the 12 months carrying the fatigue of a coaching programme that has few parallels. On a tough day, he’s at his coaching facility for eight hours. On simple days, he’s there for 4. His background as a multi-eventer – Warholm was a world under-18 champion within the octathlon – constructed a sturdiness that makes such days routine. Mondays and Fridays are “very laborious”, he says, with Wednesdays “barely laborious” and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are all about restoration. Sunday is often a time without work.
Alnes, whose stand-up-comic vitality disguises some of the revolutionary, clever minds within the sport, has lengthy experimented in his strategy. The explanation Warholm spends so lengthy on the monitor every day isn’t solely about growing quantity however permitting for higher depth.
“Most of it’s resting,” says Alnes. “It’s a burst of high quality and, by resting in the course of the day, you’re in a position to get a much bigger quantity, extra repetition, greater high quality.”
His warm-up consists of diversified quantities of working, leaping and strengthening workout routines, with Warholm usually arising stairs. He then hits the skillmill – a curved treadmill – which is the place the actually laborious graft begins. “Coach makes me run one minute at 30 kilometres an hour, getting some lactic [acid], then going out and working hurdles with the lactic in your legs. That’s a really robust session.”
Warholm is 29 now, and the suitable coaching recipe has been refined over a few years. “I believe we’ve actually damaged the code for how one can get me in the most effective form doable,” he says. “So long as we will get by way of it wholesome, we all know if we do that stuff, we might be excellent. However pushing each week, day in, time out, comes with quite a lot of dangers. Earlier than, after I was working 48 seconds, there wasn’t that a lot of a danger however now, making an attempt all the time to push 46 and hopefully 45 once more, it’s much more danger and I believe you see it within the historical past: it’s been a few accidents over the last years. However that is nonetheless the one means that is smart, to try to push the extent.”
The one situation with making a masterpiece? It will possibly make every thing that follows really feel a little bit anticlimactic, leaving its creator tormented of their quest to breed it. In Tokyo 4 years in the past, Warholm splashed an all-time nice efficiency throughout the Olympic canvas – his 400m hurdles world report of 45.94 remaining untouched, untroubled, ever since. In line with World Athletics’ scoring tables, it equates to a 42.75 400m, 1:39.70 800m or 3:23 1500m. In different phrases, it’s pretty out of this world.
Does he take into account it the right run? “I believe, given what we had within the tank in 2021, it was fairly near good,” he says. “However nonetheless we see quite a lot of issues that we expect, in concept, we will enhance. It doesn’t imply you’ll. You may all the time say I need to change up one thing on hurdle 9 and 10 however you continue to should do the primary eight hurdles simply as quick as in Tokyo. However my final 100 metres has all the time been essentially the most difficult. They weren’t good in Tokyo as properly, despite the fact that they have been one in every of my higher [races]. We expect we will enhance it, however will probably be very troublesome.”
And as for Alnes? “I completely agree that we in all probability maximised the outcome on an important day, as did lots of those that ran, which leads me to the conclusion the circumstances have been excellent.”
Alnes believes the pandemic aided performances in Tokyo: “Loads of athletes have been depressed by the actual fact they determined to postpone it,” he says. “I made a decision to return into coaching the day we came upon [and said]: ‘Sure, we received one other 12 months!’”
Alnes doesn’t need to predict if his star protégé can go quicker “as a result of properly executed is so a lot better than properly stated”, however he says: “In fact, we attempt to enhance, and it’s higher to stumble in the suitable route than to stroll vigorously within the flawed means.”
The inference is that, often, they’ll get it flawed, however that’s the worth of pushing the boundaries of human efficiency.
Of their bid to go quicker, they’re excavating each doable space of enchancment. “Should you stated one thing actually sensible now, we might take it after which focus on it,” Warholm tells me and, as soon as I guarantee him that gained’t occur, we speak about an space that does assist – shoe know-how.
On the Tokyo Olympics, Warholm known as out Nike’s tremendous spikes as “bullshit”, evaluating its thick midsole to a trampoline, however he has since modified his outlook on such know-how. Following the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, he flew with Alnes to Vietnam to assist Puma develop the ‘Berserker’ spike that he wore in Paris final 12 months. At simply 140g, it’s a lot lighter than its rival but when there’s one factor that units it aside, it’s the ‘claw’ – which juts out from the entrance of the shoe.
The origin of that got here from Warholm taking pictures a business for a Norwegian salmon firm. “We had a thousand-frames-per-second digital camera, actually high-tech stuff, that received us stunning photos,” he says. “We ran within the shoe that didn’t have the claw as a result of, after all, it wasn’t invented but, and you might see how the take-off was actually slipping and the way a lot energy received misplaced.
“That’s how we got here up with the claw which first began as nails or screws simply to see if that labored and after that labored, we received it carried out within the carbon plate.”
The identical precept was later used for the plate in Puma’s present tremendous shoe, the Quick-R Nitro Elite 3, which has been discovered to offer a 3.5 per cent enchancment in working economic system over different top-of-the-line racing footwear. Alnes says the ‘claw’ will increase floor contact time, however improves a extra essential metric.
“On the finish of the day, it’s all about velocity,” he says. “Efficiency is created when you’re on the bottom. So it’s storing elastic vitality – that’s the large change from the time whenever you mainly ran barefoot. The shoe Karsten gained with in Tokyo, I believe that’s the final time somebody wins in a shoe – a stiff plate with nails on. A shoe was once a shoe. Now it’s a musical instrument. You must discover ways to play it. Should you’re a drummer, you shouldn’t attempt to play the violin.”
Warholm will run in “roughly” the identical spike this 12 months, with some tiny changes. “Some locations you need stabilisation so it’s a must to add weight, others you don’t so you’ll be able to take it off,” he says. “It’s fascinating. I prefer to work with it. In fact, you make errors on the best way too however that’s simply studying, and we don’t should pay the invoice for it, in order that’s very good.”
They’ve additionally been experimenting along with his stride sample. Within the final two Olympic finals, Warholm ran with 13 steps between limitations as much as hurdle 9, then 15 to the final, however he’s been “working a little bit bit” extra with 14 steps since final 12 months. “It’s not a thought I need to let go, however it’s laborious altering,” he admits. “For an outdated canine to be taught new methods – it takes time.”
He’ll return right into a heavy coaching block in the course of the summer season, laying extra basis for September’s World Championships in Tokyo. One place he gained’t be seen this 12 months is in Grand Slam Monitor, which he believes is a promising thought even when, in its present guise, it’s not a match for him.
“It’s troublesome as a result of it’s within the US and competing two instances each weekend is [challenging],” he says. “However, nonetheless, I just like the considered the place they attempt to go and I believe it’s additionally wholesome for the game. There are quite a lot of good ideas there. They in all probability want a while to search out their route and that is smart too, as a result of it’s new.”
Alnes notes the upstart sequence “additionally offers alternatives to extra athletes to do that full-time,” including that it’s a “good thing as a result of it’s probably not a cash sport.”
Alnes believes the Diamond League closing might be “going through one thing troublesome” this 12 months, given its new slot earlier than the World Championships might lead to extra athletes skipping it to concentrate on preparations. Warholm says will probably be “attention-grabbing to see how totally different athletes take care of” the brand new finale to the season.
Warholm might be 32 when he will get the possibility to regain the Olympic title in Los Angeles and he plans to compete no less than till then, and maybe properly past.
“I’ll attempt to take pleasure in it so long as I can however there are quite a lot of issues that should be in place for a profession to be that lengthy,” he says.
“I don’t see any purpose to decelerate. The perspective is essential – you’ve received to have the eagerness and motivation to go on and, for now, we’ve got it. However you by no means know when that feeling will disappear.”
For now, he has a extra speedy focus: profitable a fourth world title in Tokyo, a metropolis that holds such blissful reminiscences.
Together with his well being restored, his velocity precisely the place he needs it, his mission for 2025 is simple. “To win as a lot as doable and proceed to interrupt data,” he says. “I’m hungry for extra gold medals.”
