Damian Warner turns the page on Paris and gets ready to chase an 'elusive' world title
CBC
The last time most sports fans saw Damian Warner, the Canadian decathlete was describing how his worst nightmare had come true at the Paris Olympic Games.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion was sitting in second place after six events but fell out of contention when he failed to clear the bar on all his three attempts in the pole vault.
Eight months after withdrawing from that competition, Warner says he's turned the page on Paris, but hasn't forgotten its lessons.
"I feel like one of the important things about being a track athlete is having a short term memory," Warner said in a recent interview before his summer season begins. "When you have failures or things don't go your way, you have to be able to stew in that moment and just kind of be upset at yourself and kind of draw as much as you can from that performance to be better."
But if he wanted to continue to be at the top of his sport, Warner says he needed to let it go.
"So, I've moved on. I've tried to learn as much as I can from that situation, and now we have a new season ahead with a new goal, and that's what I'm looking forward to."
That new season has two key decathlons circled, starting with the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria, on May 31. Warner will then turn his attention toward September's world championships in Tokyo.
WATCH | Emotional Damian Warner speaks after pulling out of the Olympics:
Helping him put Paris 2024 in the rearview mirror was a new addition to his family not long after returning from the Summer Games. Warner and his partner, Jen Cotten, welcomed daughter Olivia into the world, joining big brother Theo, who's now four years old.
"You could be all upset about the competition, and you come home and you have the most beautiful thing that you've ever seen, right? And then from there, you just kind of [find that] life takes over and you move on," Warner said.
"And Paris isn't something that crosses your mind on a day-to-day basis. It's cleaning up toys and playing with Lego and trying not to step on Lego and all that crazy stuff."
Training camps and competitions can take Warner away from home and his family for weeks at a time. He says it's impossible to be the world's best dad while also being the world's best decathlete, but his number one priority is clear.
"You go to the track and you kind of exhaust yourself, and then you come home and kids want to jump and climb all over you. But I try to make sure I have the energy because that's the priority of my life — my kids. And track comes second after that," he said.
"Right now, I've struck a good balance. I have really good people in my life where I'm able to be the best athlete that I could be on the track, but also at the same time be a really good dad."
