After the qualifying race in the Olympic city, he was very busy, and even busier he was after the semifinals. He would rather not have talked to anyone.
He gave one minute to the Norwegians present from the writing press, and that was mostly it. Warholm felt the pressure. Not least from himself. We have never seen him more concentrated than in the last few days leading up to the Olympic final.
– Just right! he said when NTB had a chat with him in connection with a sponsorship assignment on Økern portal in Oslo last week.
– It was special. I have never been more shut up by journalists than after the semi-finals of the Olympics. People were cursed. But no one yelled at me after 45.94, world record and Olympic gold. It was a completely different focus than normal. The Olympics were the most important thing this year. No one will thank you for a great semi-final if I had flopped in the final. I knew what was going to happen, and it was about saving energy and delivering in the final, says Warholm.
The Olympic stay was a success story without equal and was crowned with gold on 3 August. When he was to follow up by running 400 meters flat in Lausanne 23 days later, the tank was empty. Then he ended up with 4th place.
(The case continues below the picture)
Karsten Warholm during the race session on the roof terrace at Økern portal last Friday. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB
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Tuition fees
The 400-meter costs. I chose to enjoy myself a little after the Olympics. If I had not been completely free, I would at least go home to Ulsteinvik to meet family and friends. It shows how delicate the balance is to achieve the ultimate performance. It was a “wake up call” that way.
On September 9, everything was in order again. Then he won the Diamond League final in Zurich and won the 400 meter hurdles in the Diamond League in total.
– After Lausanne, it was back to gather for what was one of the most important after the Olympic gold and the world record, and that was to win the Diamond League trophy. Winning it was pretty big. The Norwegian record of 300 meters in Bergen also showed that I am still in good running shape, but it costs to keep up with the race I do.
In any case, Warholm is crystal clear that the drive towards the Olympics was worth it.
– It’s fun to see what happens when you put the list as high as you can. At the same time, it is not certain that I would have won Olympic gold if I had not done so. This may have been my only chance to win Olympic gold. I had to take a chance. It does not become a world record every time I am on the starting line, but that’s all right.
Believe
– When did you realize that you had 46 blanks in you?
– Leif has talked about that 46 blanks was top potential with a full hit, but none of us had thought that it would necessarily happen already this year. In the long run, it was clearly an obvious vision, he says about the prediction of coach Leif Olav Alnes.
– What does it mean that you have achieved this year? Do you get full, or does it provide additional motivation?
– I want to repeat this. It’s a good feeling to reach your goals. At the same time, you notice that after doing something like that, you shoot quite high, crash land a bit and are back in reality. I miss the daily routine and the normal life.
The summary says that he has become happy in the life he lives. You will hardly see him in the party in a trance and with the Olympic medal around his neck.
– I have never been happy to go out and live life and cash in on my medals in a way that is not performance-enhancing. It’s going to happen now too. I’m just looking forward to continuing to be an athlete and hopefully as one of the more established eventually. And of course I will try to keep my position.
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