Heptathlete has drawn inspiration from Jessica Ennis-Hill plus present coaching associate Katarina Johnson-Thompson, writes Stuart Weir.
Keep in mind Tremendous Saturday on the 2012 London Olympics, when three British athletes – Jess Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah – received gold medals within the house of simply 45 minutes? A 12-year-old lady in Oxford couldn’t take her eyes off the TV display. Quick ahead 12 years and that Kidlington lady was within the Paris Olympic Stadium however this time she was competing. She describes herself as “a part of the 2012 legacy”.
Jade O’Dowda was so enthusiastic about athletics that she requested her mother and father if she may have a strive. She began going to Metropolis of Oxford two evenings every week and located it enjoyable. She remembers being “a part of a gaggle of kids doing about 4 occasions each evening with a little bit of working on the finish simply to tire you out”.
She remembers the Oxford Metropolis chairman telling her mother and father that they had been fearful about her as a result of irrespective of how a lot they requested her to do, they by no means appeared in a position to tire her!
Oxford Metropolis was actually essential to her improvement as was assembly Marcia Marriott, who talked to her about heptathlon. And as Ennis had been her inspiration, it appeared a pure development to begin heptathlon.
O’Dowda provides that because the junior programme concerned a little bit of hight and lengthy leap throwing and working, all of which she loved, heptathlon was an apparent alternative.
Her first recorded competitions had been in 2012 – an 800m and an extended leap. By 2013 she was making an attempt and successful a pentathlon. By 2017 she was competing the World Underneath-20 Championships.
After faculty she took a level in geography and a grasp’s in worldwide relations in Sheffield, linking up with present coach, John Lane. After Uni she turned an expert athlete, as she put it: “I feel 12-year-old me would have by no means have thought that she’d be capable of generate income from it.”
From then on it was regular progress:2022: Commonwealth Video games bronze, European Championship 7th2024: Olympic Video games tenth, European Championship 7th2025: European Indoors 4th, World Champs 8th
Twelve years after being impressed by the London Olympics, she discovered herself within the Paris Olympics. “It was unimaginable, fairly daunting strolling out for hurdles (her first occasion),” she mentioned. “I hadn’t gone to the stadium beforehand and I bear in mind being stood within the tunnel earlier than my hurdles race after which I walked out and I feel my mouth simply dropped.
“I felt like I used to be within the backside of this cauldron with a great deal of folks looking at me. And yeah, I simply bear in mind trying round and pondering, how the hell has little Jade acquired right here?”
To complete 10th within the Olympics left her with blended emotions: a tremendous expertise but realizing that if she had not been injured for a lot of the 12 months, she may have finished higher.
She describes 2025 as “a extremely good 12 months” however there once more there’s a tinge of frustration. Fourth within the European Indoor pentathlon – so near medal however not fairly.
The ultimate occasion is the 800m and he or she simply wanted to be slightly sooner for the medal. Winter accidents had left her wanting 800m endurance coaching “and it confirmed,” she says, “it was irritating as a result of I do know I am able to doing extra and I am a bit gutted that I wasn’t in a position to present it. It was like dangling a carrot in entrance that I simply missed. As pissed off as I used to be, I used to be in a position to take loads from it”.
She feels “very fortunate” to have KJT as a team-mate, explaining: “It is actually cool. I suppose selfishly, I’ve had slightly little bit of a entrance row seat to the previous, two years. The best way yearly, nevertheless her 12 months has gone, that she’s been in a position to come and present up and get a medal, particularly in heptathlon is superb.
“Doing it myself and realizing how arduous it’s, I feel it does get slightly bit underappreciated how yearly, yearly she’s turned up and he or she’s acquired us a medal. She’s positively such an inspiration. Once we’re competing, I’ve a lot enjoyable together with her too, in between rounds, typically we’re laughing and joking in between occasions.
“So it is good to see, how she’s in a position to be so relaxed and enjoyable, however nonetheless be such this fierce competitor. And I feel I am not saying by any signifies that, she practically scored 7000 factors and is a two-time world champion multi-global medallist, however I am slightly bit far off that now, however I feel by seeing it with my very own eyes, like actually proper in entrance of me, it sort of makes it really feel doable. So for egocentric causes, that is the largest factor, but in addition it is simply been actually enjoyable.”
O’Dowda is already into winter coaching and feeling assured for 2026, which is an enormous 12 months for GB athletes with a World Indoors in Poland in March, a Commonwealth Video games in Glasgow and European Championships in Birmingham.
The 2025 season is the primary 12 months for a number of years that she has completed a season harm free and is due to this fact in a position to begin winter coaching wholesome, too.
