While the fastest athletes on the planet were deep in training for last summer’s world championships in Budapest, Jake Wightman, then the reigning 1500m champion, was undertaking an exercise in humility. It began, of all places, at his local bike shop.
“They must have been licking their lips when I walked in, because I told them I don’t know anything about bikes, but I wanted one that was all right,” he says, chuckling at the memory. “I bought all the gear and went out.”
At this point, he was unable to run much after a succession of injuries, starting with a fractured foot while doing plyometrics last January. Having been unable to defend his world title, he yearned to get his competitive juices flowing again. Hence the bike.
“I had been exercising in the gym, but it was just miserable being on my own on an indoor bike in what felt like a hot dungeon. Around where I live is Richmond Park, where a lot of people ride, so I decided to give it a go.
“Despite my injuries, I thought I was fit and I was bragging to my mates that it would be nice to be flying around and going past people again. Yet I was struggling to stay with them up the hills. My quads were just burning, even on the flat bits where I had to put any power through them. It was very humbling.”
That was not the end of it, either. “I then went on the cycling app Zwift and was absolutely bagged by these normal athletes. I was in the C category and I still came third-last.”
But that was then and this is now. Last Sunday, the 29-year-old returned to the track after 13 months away and ran his quickest indoor 1500m at the New Balance grand prix in Boston. His time of 3min 34.06sec was just outside the qualifying standard for the Olympics, which left him a little disappointed. But what happened in 2023 has given him perspective and hunger.
“The worst bit about last year was that I felt worthless in some ways, because running is my job. It’s what I do. Not being able to race makes you feel useless. You’ve also got sponsors that are supporting you, even though you’re not doing what you’re getting paid to do. I hated that.
“But it also gave me more gratitude towards running and being pain-free. The fact that it’s the Olympics in July means it could be the most important year I’ve left in my career and I want to make the most of it.”
Wightman was asked by an American journalist on Sunday whether being a world champion had made him a celebrity in the UK. “There’s a saying back home that yesterday’s news is today’s chip paper,” he said. “The sport moves on quickly. But I’d rather go in under the radar.”
That is what Wightman did in Eugene in 2022, when he took down the Olympic champion, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, in a thrilling last 200 metres to win gold. It was a hell of a performance, with a heart-tugging encore to match from Jake’s father, Geoff, who was commentating. “That’s my son,” he said. “I coach him. And he’s the world champion.”
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Geoff’s first words to Jake afterwards were on the need to focus on the upcoming Commonwealth Games rather than well done. But Jake says his father has also mellowed over the past year. “I don’t know if my mum said something to him, but he was a bit more compassionate when I missed out on the worlds,” he says. “I feel like I am very mentally resilient. I don’t show a lot of emotion. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not feeling it.
“Sometimes he has not been aware of how much things affect me. But in the summer he knew that I needed time to be able to relax away from the sport.”
However, Jake credits his dad with instilling in him a winning mentality from a young age. “The core of it is just being so competitive. But my dad has always told me that you have to put yourself in a position to win. It’s not going to happen on its own. And if you don’t impose yourself at any point, then it’s a waste of a run.”
For now, though, all roads lead to Paris this summer and what promises to be a spectacular men’s Olympic 1500m. Especially as Wightman’s friend and British teammate Josh Kerr is the world champion having followed a similar blueprint to beat Ingebrigtsen in Budapest.
So have they got under the Norwegian’s skin? “Jakob probably didn’t respect what I did in 2022,” Wightman says. “Then maybe he was complacent last year because he wasn’t aware of what Josh can do when firing.
“Winning in the Diamond League also probably gave Jakob a false sense of how good he was running. He is very good at time trialling. But probably not as good in championships as he thought.”
But given Ingebrigsten’s best 1500m time is 3:27.14 – nearly two seconds quicker than anyone else in the field – could he just change tactics and blast out from the gun in Paris? “In theory,” Wightman says. “If he goes as hard as he can, he might run 3:26 or 3:27 from the front and we wouldn’t be able to live with that. But the chances of it going wrong are far higher than Josh and I getting burnt off.
“When it comes to the championship races, we have big strengths. We don’t train the Norwegian way, with the double threshold runs like the other guys. We’re very old school with how we approach it from having a bit more speed. In championship races that always gives you a chance. So it’s tough for Jakob. You’d rather be in our situation. Because we know how he likes to run and we are able to react to what he tries to do.”
Whatever happens, Wightman promises there will be no repeat of the Tokyo Olympics, when he looked superb in winning his semi-final but faded to 10th in the final. “I was obsessed with the fact that it was the Olympic final,” he says.
“And I was like right, this is the biggest thing I can do. I have to get everything right. I ended up burning nervous energy. Whereas now I am very good at going into the warm-up area and feeling very chilled and relaxed. As a result, I make good decisions when I race.”
Chilled, yes. But ready to feel the burn again as well. “I love being full of lactic acid and having to dig really, really deep,” Wightman says. “That’s one of the feelings I enjoy. You think that if you carry on, you’ll fall over. But you’re still able to run through that until you finish. And pain feels very different when things are going well.”