Hurdler Jason Joseph has not got up to speed this season as he would have liked. However, that doesn't change the fact that he is flirting with an Olympic medal.
04.08.2024, 07:30
04.08.2024, 08:42
SDA
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- Swiss hurdler Jason Joseph has not yet performed as well as he would have liked this season.
- Nevertheless, he is flirting with a medal at the Olympic Games.
- However, Joseph is aware that just qualifying for the final is a challenge in itself.
Jason calls Joseph exactly at the agreed time. Asked whether punctuality is one of his virtues, the 25-year-old from Basel replies in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency: "I'd love to answer yes, but unfortunately not at all. I tend to be punctual for everything that has to do with sport, otherwise the agreed time is more of a guideline."
The interview takes place on Thursday morning, just before Joseph's departure for Paris. He likes to arrive just before the competition - the heats for the 110 m hurdles start at 11.50 a.m. on Sunday. "Above all, I was able to train at home," says Joseph. When he was working under the starting coach Rana Reider in Florida in 2021 and 2022, "I realized that I needed Claudine". Claudine Müller had already been his main coach.
Size is both a curse and a blessing
"Nevertheless, my time in the USA was important," emphasizes Joseph. "I got faster and stronger there and saw how top athletes train." He was not yet one of them back then. However, because there was little technical training in Florida, he was not able to use his higher speed optimally in the 110 m hurdles races. He therefore returned to Switzerland to Claudine Müller. "There is no better coach for me."
Because Joseph's height of 1.92 m is both a curse and a blessing. "Although the hurdle height (106.7 cm) is not a problem for me at all, the distance between the hurdles is rather short for my legs. That's why we work so much on frequency and rhythm," he explains. Speaking of training. In the past, hurdling wasn't his thing at all. "When I started at the age of 13 or 14, I wasn't really agile, I didn't really have any power and it was also difficult in terms of coordination," Joseph looks back. "Hurdling is so difficult if you can't master it." As he was still "quite okay", he carried on. It definitely paid off.
Working on nuances
With a view to his second Olympic Games after Tokyo 2021, he has recently been working on nuances, such as the angle of his arms, in order to be more compact. Because it is precisely details like these that determine whether he is really fast or not. The "millimeter work", as Joseph called it, was all the more important as the season has not gone to his liking so far, despite winning bronze at the European Championships in Rome in June. His best time this year is 13.25 seconds, a mark that is 18 hundredths faster than his own Swiss record. Joseph completely failed his main Olympic rehearsal on July 12 at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco with 13.54 seconds.
How has he dealt with the fact that he hasn't got up to speed as desired so far? "It was difficult until last week. I had a lot of questions as to why I couldn't get the training performances on the track. Because that goes against my nature, as I'm actually a competitive type. But now I'm starting from scratch again. I feel really good, better than in the last few competitions." He has had Paris on his mind since the disappointment of Tokyo.
Despite the mediocre results, Joseph's goals haven't changed and he's flirting with a medal. "Of course, my performances are a long way off a medal at the moment, a lot has to come together for me to even make it to the final. Nevertheless, I owe it to myself to compete with the highest possible goals. I can't lose hope, I can risk everything."
