90 days and counting. The Olympics in Tokyo can’t come soon enough, Laura Muir proclaims.
“There is a lot of excitement,” the European 1500 metres champion declares. “I guess an Olympic Games. is really special, and, you know, it only comes around every four years … or five years now.”
The autocorrection to the normal order still looms large. Like everyone else, the 27-year-old saw Covid flush the plans for last summer down the drain. Instead, Plan B – then C and D – were drafted. And with few signs that even Japanese public opinion and the lingering presence of the virus will wipe the rearranged Games from the diary, Muir will begin her build-up at tonight’s USATF Grand Prix in Oregon and let her pulse quicken at the route map that will take her, bar disaster, towards becoming an Olympian for the second time.
“With it having been five years since Rio, I think it's just got that little bit more oomph to it, even though it's always very special,” Dundee Hawkhill Harriers finest underlines.
“It feels like it's not quite once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But you only get maybe two or three chances at it. So yeah, it's very, very exciting. Every athlete wants to wants to go there and compete and do well.”
Muir, a member of the Müller Athletic Squad, will stretch her legs over 1500 metres in her season opener at Hayward Field in Eugene, newly-renovated ahead of hosting next year’s world championships.
A hefty contingent of Brits, decamping to train without restrictions in the USA, will get an early start to their campaigns with her training partner Jemma Reekie seeking a quick 800m against fellow Brit Adelle Tracey. While Eilish McColgan faces surprise European Indoor 3000 metres champion Amy-Eloise Markovc over 5000m and Guy Learmonth goes in the 800m.
Against the grain, McColgan has raced once already following abortive half-marathon plans. “To be doing a track race in February was unusual but I wanted to do something,” the Olympic finalist said. “Because I’d trained really hard all winter and had a good block in Dubai but I wanted a competition to see how my base is and to give information for my coach for the 5000 as well.”
Muir’s coach Andy Young believes his charge can immediately go quickly in her first outing since breaking the UK indoor 1500m record in February. “It'll be really interesting to see how everybody races at the start of the season,” she confirms. “Because I guess some people won't have raced for a long period of time.
“So we’ll see where everybody is at and see where we are at ahead of the Games. Hopefully we're a good place to go in there and do well.”
And if the unexpected arises and the calendar is disrupted pre-Tokyo, the self-styled Family Young will regroup and redirect flights to wherever suits them best.
“We've got the experience now of competing at multiple championships at different points during the year,” Muir adds. “And Andy's very good at trying to plan this as best possible for events at different times.
“Training is going well. And he's got an idea of what he wants to do at different periods of time. We've missed indoors with the focus on the training as well. It was all about the summer this year. So I think that helped in that sense.”
Elsewhere, Olympic marathon contender Callum Hawkins gets his first competitive outing since coming fourth at the 2019 world championships in today’s Nebraska Half-Marathon.
Laura Muir is a Müller Ambassador and member of the Müller Athletic Squad
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