– No longer have anything to prove

ASKER (Dagbladet): – Do you think we should have press meetings more often, right?

Karsten Warholm (28) smiles broadly. He has kept his spirits up after around four hours with the press in beautiful surroundings at Holmen Fjordhotell in Asker.

The 28-year-old is scheduled to make his season debut outdoors during the Bislett Games on 30 May. Afterwards, it’s all over the summer with the EC in Rome (7-12 June) and the Olympics in Paris (1-11 August) as the two big highlights.

– It is an important season. Every season, when I’m in it, feels very important to me, and I’m glad it’s like that. But it is clear that with an Olympics, it peaks a bit. Everyone wants to be at their best in an Olympics, and there are quite a few Olympics you get during your sporting career. So it probably hangs a little higher than a normal season, so to speak, says Warholm to Dagbladet.

The hurdler has won most of what there is to win on the sports field, including three World Cup golds and not least the Olympic gold in Tokyo. It hasn’t curbed the hunger.

– For me, the motivation is that I want to see how good I can be. I still believe I have more to add. The sports career is short. I feel that building on the CV that I already have – win more medals – gives me something. I always look forward, says Warholm and continues:

– The medals I have won also give me a lot, but what it gives me the most is security. I no longer feel like I have anything to prove. So I enjoy it even more every year. The more medals I get, the more fun I think it is, the more weight I feel I get, the more I trust what we are doing.

The 28-year-old has previously walked around with a fear that has now let go.

– A lot of that fear of having to give up without having won everything, it has subsided a bit, but it was very important to me at one point. To have that Olympic gold, that World Cup gold, that European Championship gold – those were the most important boxes for me to tick. That I have done so lowers my shoulders a little. But the desire to win and the fear of losing, and the whole competitive aspect of it, it’s very triggering.

Went with a bang

In sports, there is a short distance between heaven and hell. Warholm experienced that when he suffered an injury during the season opener in Rabat, Morocco in 2022, which later led to him finishing a disappointing seventh in the Eugene WC.

– Yes, it sucked, says Warholm sincerely and continues:

– It puts things into perspective a bit. Until then, most things had gone smoothly. I had one injury, but it was during the pandemic, so I got away a little cheaper. Top sport offers injuries, so over many years we have constantly pushed the limit. That we go over a bit, it happens. And little things happen at irregular intervals, but exactly that was extremely bad timing in 2022. The WC came early, of course, and the injury came in the season opener. It just spoiled most things.

Coach Leif Olav Alnes is still scratching his head over the injury Warholm sustained, an injury neither of them saw coming. At the same time, it wasn’t so bad that it’s not good for anything.

– It gave me a perspective. At that point, people were waiting for me to be beaten, and if you say “Karsten is going to be beaten” every season, then at some point you will be right. That season many people were right, and then you get the perspective that sport is fresh, that people forget quickly, and that you are not as hot when you don’t deliver, says Warholm and continues:

– It goes well, of course, but in a way you realize a little more that: “Okay, okay. When you turn off the light, you’re usually alone”, and that’s a nice recognition to come to. You are the one who controls your destiny, you are the one who sets the value on yourself, you are the one who controls the assumptions. And not least, top sport is fragile, and you shouldn’t take things for granted. All of these things are nice perspectives that I gained.

Warholm would have preferred not to go through with it, but in retrospect he gained experiences which in the long run can be good.

– For me, who often sits by myself and ponders and thinks a bit, I get a new perspective that I hadn’t looked at so much before, but it also shows that the lifestyle I have chosen is fragile and the everyday life that I am used to to can change quickly. Both on the positive side, when you win like in the Tokyo Olympics, it’s a new world that is very inviting the day after. Then you get injured the year after, and it’s pretty grim. So things change quickly in top sport – for better or for worse.

– A distant thought

Warholm and Alnes have, among others, Amalie Iuel in the team. She recently made a comeback after over a year and a half away from competition, after she had her son Storm in September.

The new pod in the group has made Warholm think about his own life when it comes to children.

– For me it is still an extremely distant thought, I must admit. Kudos to her for balancing it, it’s not easy. I think everyone who has had children probably knows that. She has experienced that too, but she has obviously managed that balance well, says Warholm and continues:

– I think it’s nice that there is a new mascot in the team, I’ve only gotten the positives from it. It’s very nice to have him over there and stuff like that. And then you see that it is a human being, and a human being has needs. After all, it requires time and love and the like.

– Did it give you a little fright?

– In the bubble that I’m living in right now, I must admit that I see that it would be best to wait a little for my part. I do. It doesn’t make the task any easier, I think Malin can also agree with that.

Warholm lives with Oda Djupvik (26), with whom he moved in winter 2022.

– Luckily for me, Oda is also a career woman, so she gets on with hers and I get on with mine. So that’s where we are in life now, says Warholm.

– Time will show

And there is nothing to suggest that the runner from Ulsteinvik is going to give up top sport any time soon.

– I think I can keep going as long as I feel that I have the opportunity to pick medals in major championships and am within striking distance of the best level in the world. And how long that is, time will tell. But I like this life very much, says Warholm and continues:

– And as long as I’m willing to invest in what it takes to stay there, I’m keen on it. But what you also see is that there is not much slack for me now, until I can no longer fight for gold. The place where I am now is very delicate. It’s pretty hard to get there, but it’s even harder to stay there. Right now I feel very motivated to make that investment, and I think I will be there for quite some time to come. I have not set a definitive end date, but hopefully as late as possible.

Now another tough season awaits, where new rivals are constantly appearing. Warholm appreciates that he is pushed hard in competitions.

– If not, I wouldn’t have been the best version of myself. My rivals have also meant that me and Leif have had to use our full capacity when trying to find hundredths, of course it has. Competition is also healthy, but when you stand on the line, you just want the gold and wish it were easy, in a way, says Warholm and continues:

– In retrospect, I’m very happy that all the golds I’ve won have been golds that I really had to earn, and I think that will stand out even better when the history books are written. I actually think so.