We caught up with Jonny at the GB Preparation Camp in Loughborough, the day before he headed off to Kitzbühel to race his third WTS race of the year…
So, Kitzbühel next…
Yep, looking forward to racing but after that we’re going to go St Moritz on our kind of training camp and holding camp, so I’m looking forward to that and then just building into the Olympics.
Why St Moritz?
It’s good for altitude training , you’re at about 1,850m, so we did that last year before we raced in London and we’re going to do the same again.
Then we’ll come back two weeks before the Olympic and we’ll stay at home until the last possible moment cause with the home advantage we might as well use it, and I love being at home. So we’ll probably go down on the Sunday or Saturday, and the race is Tuesday, so it really will be last minute.
It’s going to be strange watching it on the TV and knowing your race is coming up but at the same time when the Olympics start it’s going to be a good 10 days until our race, but it’s going to be nice, it’s going to be friendly, and that’s an advantage we’ve got. I can go down on the train, I can eat my mum’s dinner a few days before!
Disappointed not to be staying in the Athlete's Village?
Half of me is a little disappointed not to be getting the full Olympic experience, but then the Olympics for us is about performing and we want to go out and do the best we can. And if we want to perform to the best of our ability and that means staying a bit out of it then that’s a sacrifice I’m definitely prepared to make. And then after our event we can go and enjoy the Olympics there. And days like this I kind of experience the Olympics and these are all kind of Olympic experiences.
You mentioned feeling tired after Blenheim, off the back of two big races in San Diego and Madrid. How are you feeling now?
Blenheim being a domestic race, I didn’t really change my training for it but Kitzbühel, by the time I get out there, I’ll be ready for it. I’m looking forward to racing the World Series [WTS]. But every race I’m going to race with the Olympics in the back of mind.
Any discussion about possible tactics this weekend? Will you be trying anything out with Stuart?
We haven’t really talked about tactics for the weekend, but it’s Alistair’s first race and that’s the most important thing for him to get a race on the board, and hopefully everything will go alright for him.
How worried were you about his Achilles injury [Alistair suffered an Achilles tear earlier in the year which prevented him from run training and racing for several months]?
At first I wasn’t worried at all cause he didn’t think it was serious. But then he went for his scan and he said he’d got a tear, so when we heard that it was a big shock. I thought he’d have been back running the next day. And then it got serious, but he was always hopeful so I always thought it’d be a few weeks off. But at the same time people were telling me Achilles don’t heal, people retire on Achilles injuries, so those thoughts were in my mind a little bit. But Alistair gets injured quite a lot and he does tend to bounce back. I always knew he’d be back racing for the Olympics. I didn’t realise he’d get back fit this quick, but that’s Alistair for you. It’s good to train with him, it’s good to live with him, it’s an advantage we’ve got over the rest of the world.
You’re both very positive by nature.
I think our secret is don’t overthink things, don’t worry about it. If it happens it happens then move on. And Alistair’s very much like that. Alistair’s a very positive person to be around and that makes me more positive. I’m more of a kind of worrier than him but that’s why it’s good for me to be around him.
And now you’re very much seen as ‘a favourite’.
I started the season well, winning both the San Diego and Madrid WTS races, but at the same time I know in the back of mind that Alistair and Javier Gomez weren’t racing, and they’re people over the last three years who I’ve shared the podium with, so it’ll be nice to race them and see if I’m [still] a favourite. But I don’t look at being a favourite as too much pressure, it’s more excitement to me. To be able to be at your home Olympics with even a chance of a medal should be thought of as, ‘Wow, how exciting is that?’, you know. It shouldn’t be thought of as, ‘Oh, all that presure’s on me’. This is great, it’s good to be a part of and I can’t wait to race to be honest.