Morgan Lake: 'I'll be improving 1% each day between now and the Paris Olympics'
If you’d asked Morgan Lake what she wanted to be when she grew up, she definitely wouldn’t have said a high jumper.
Speaking ahead of the Paris Olympics, the 27-year-old admits that the sport - in which she holds the British record - was always her least favourite.
‘I started athletics in general when I was about five,’ she tells Women’s Health. ‘My dad competed at junior level when he was younger, and his continued interest in it, and seeing it on TV, got me and my brother into it as well.
‘I started as a multi-eventer, doing all the events. I didn't like high jump, but it was part of the pentathlon, which I was doing, and then later, the heptathlon, so I kind of accidentally ended up doing it, and then started to grow to love it.
‘I was definitely a very sporty kid, I loved netball and swimming, and I always wanted to be a tennis player - but I wasn't good enough!’
Last February Morgan set a new British record for high jump after clearing 1.99m in Hustopeče in the Czech Republic, beating the previous record, held by Katarina Johnson-Thompson by 1cm. But that wasn’t Morgan’s only big moment from 2023. Last August she jumped her Olympic qualifying height, but it was a nearly year long wait until she was actually confirmed for this year’s games in Paris, getting the official nod on the same day that she picked up her thirteenth British title.
She explains: ‘It wasn’t until I cleared the bar at the British Championships that I knew [I'd be competing]. It’s been really weird as my friends and family all got tickets [for Paris] and I was like, “I don’t know if I’m actually going!”’
Competing in a sold out stadium and being cheered on by supporters and her loved ones will be a huge contrast to her experience at Tokyo’s postponed event in 2021, and Morgan is thrilled. She enthuses about the power of the Olympics to bring people together.
‘At an Olympics, people get involved and become part of it as well, which I think was a big thing that was missing in Tokyo,' she says. 'It has a sense of community, and it is as much for the spectators as it is for the athletes.'
Paris will be Morgan’s third Olympics, having also competed at Rio 2016, under the direction of her dad Eldon, a former GB junior international triple jumper, and Tokyo 2020, by which time she had started working with her current coach, former silver Olympic medallist Robbie Grabarz. The sportsman originally agreed to train her as a temporary measure after their former mentor, Fuzz Caan, was suspended by UK Athletics (UKA) just weeks ahead of the Tokyo competition in 2021 following a complaint in relation to his coaching practices. Lake and Grabarz’s working relationship became official the following year.
Morgan says: ‘Rio and Tokyo were really different experiences. My dad was my coach going into Rio, and having him be my coach up until then, and then taking me to an Olympic Games was amazing. I was the youngest on the athletics team, and I went into the Games with no real pressure and I made the final - I was so happy.
‘Fast forward to Tokyo, there were more expectations on me, and I had to jump a season’s best to get to the final. But, during the qualifying, I fractured my foot and then had to withdraw. It was a really hard moment, especially as due to Covid restrictions we were isolated. There were no friends and family allowed, and my coach also wasn't there. It was a really isolating situation.’
But Morgan, who has previously spoken about working with a mindset coach, didn’t let disappointment cloud her vision or dull her ambition to bring home a medal.
She explains: ‘Going into the Tokyo Games and jumping a season's best to make the final was a huge moment for me. It made me think, “right, okay, I know I can do this. And I've only got three years to wait until Paris now”, which obviously sounds like a long time, but in the grand scheme of things, it comes around so quickly.’
Morgan tells WH that her main focus for Paris 2024 is getting into the final, which surprisingly she says is less stressful than competing in the final itself.
‘The medal fight is the exciting bit,’ she says. ‘It's just clearing every bar until you get to the point where it's like, "right, this height can get me a medal". I find that the fun part of the Games rather than the anxious part. The main thing is making the final and then I can kind of relax and enjoy it from there.’
How does she nurture and maintain the mental resilience needed to cope with such a huge amount of pressure?
‘With high jump, you have to build up throughout the competition. You start off low, and then you have 7,8, or 9 jumps before you get up to the bigger heights. It’s about remaining focused and calm for the whole competition, because usually qualifying can take two hours or more, and you obviously can't be completely switched on that whole time. You've got to let yourself relax and breathe, and you can't be tense for two hours because by the end of it, you'll be absolutely exhausted. I think that having an “on and off switch” is probably what keeps me so calm.’
Of course there’s a lot more to vying for an Olympic medal than just maintaining a level head. Morgan trains and competes all year round, and she admits that she has off days where she can’t believe she can get over the bar - which is often just a few centimetres away from the 2 metres mark.
‘During the winter we have a lot of strength, speed and technical training, and you have to bank all that work so that in the summer, you're feeling fast and plyometric, and you can jump those heights,' she says. 'But sometimes in winter, when you've got DOMS every single day or dead legs, you can be left feeling like “I don’t know how I’m going to get over this bar”.
‘When you're competing, when you're jumping, it becomes second nature. But when you're having a bad day, I look at the bar and feel like “how have I jumped that high before?” I guess I have a little bit of self doubt sometimes. I ask myself, “how am I going to jump this high again?” but then I get into the rhythm of things, and it's like, "okay, cool!"’
Morgan is one of four Olympians featured in a new Channel 4 documentary series, Path To Paris: The Hunt For Gold. The cameras follow her during an international training camp (for the majority of the year, she’s based in the UK), allowing viewers to have a front row seat to the hard work which goes into getting ready for the Games. Like many professional athletes, Morgan receives funding from the National Lottery in order to train and stay at the top of her game.
She says: ‘The fact that the show is funded by the National Lottery is amazing, because that's what their funds are funding, it allows us to be the athletes we are today.
‘I really hope viewers enjoy being able to follow our journey and gaining insight on all the little bits and intricacies that you don't really see. Obviously everyone knows that athletes train hard, but sometimes the hardest parts aren't on the track.’
Between now and her first event on August 2, which Morgan describes as ‘the serious part’ of her training, she will be focusing on sleep, nutrition and incremental improvements.
She explains: ‘This is probably the most important part of the year in terms of we've done all the training, but now it's about staying healthy, ticking over, eating fresh, getting a lot of sleep - a lot!
‘In regards to my diet, I’ll be making sure I’m eating really clean, an anti-inflammatory diet, enough water, fruit and veg - the obvious things you try and do anyway, but maybe not having much chocolate and biscuits, taking out the rubbish for a few weeks.
‘Trying to clean up everything, absolutely everything counts. People talk about being 1% better every day, and just making all the right choices with everything. It’s going to be an exciting few weeks, but it’s definitely the serious part now.’
National Lottery has invested more than £300 million in grassroots and elite sport. Path to Paris: The Hunt for Gold, featuring Morgan Lake, is on Channel 4 on July 20 at 4:55pm, repeated on Sunday 21 July at 10pm or available to stream on All 4.
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