Inside life of Olympian Josh Kerr - upbringing, vicious feud, and long-distance partner
Team GB's Josh Kerr will go head-to-head with Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 'one of the most vicious and hardest' Olympic Games 1500m men's final - but what does his life look like away from the track?
Josh Kerr has been dreaming of tonight's 1500m final his whole life and while it'll certainly be one for him to remember, it may also go down as one for the history books.
Despite years of dedicated training coming down to this all-important Olympic Game s event, the 26-year-old remains cool as a cucumber, with his remarkable confidence often noted by pundits - something not ordinarily seen among British athletes.
It could be that he's spurred on by his fierce competitor Jakob Ingebrigtsen, of Norway, who he shared a back-and-forth public spat with after the Scotsman beat the 2020 Tokyo gold medallist at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Kerr ran the 1500m with a season best of 3:29.38 to Ingebrigtsen's 3:29.65.
Speaking ahead of tonight's race and potential tactics between the pair, Kerr said: "He's going to try to win. I'm going to try to win. And we'll see who wins. I’ve been picturing it my whole life and so it's going to be another day in the office for me and I'm just looking to put on a performance for millions of people. It's my job to give the crowd the best experience."
In another interview, Kerr, who claimed a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, insisted he wanted to bury the hatchet once and for all. "I'm ready to go after it. I think we all are. There's been a lot of talk and words over the last kind of 12 months, or even two years.
"I'm just looking to settle that a little bit on Tuesday and give it my best performance." Speaking about what's to come for the crowd, he added: "They should just be expecting one of the most vicious and hardest 1500s that people have seen in a very long time."
Ingebrigtsen recently added fuel to the fire after dismissing Kerr as a rival by describing him as an athlete who "never competes". "It is difficult to refer to him as a rival when he is never there," Ingebrigtsen said.
"He is known as the Brit who never competes. I try to enter as many races as I can and I want to be here to entertain." It is believed Ingebrigtsen was referring to Kerr's absence from the Diamond League and the European Championships in Rome - in which the Norwegian dominated both, earning a new European record from the latter race - though Kerr dubbed his performance as "boring".
Clarifying there is no bad blood between the pair, Kerr insisted that both men just want to be at the top of their game. "I don’t think it really cuts too deep on either end," he said. "There's no ill will towards him. It’s just I’m a competitive guy and I want to win and so sometimes that comes out in different ways. But I think he’s in a similar situation."
International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) president Sebastian Coe has dubbed Tuesday's 1500m final a potential "race for the ages" thanks to the tense rivalry. Josh was exposed to a competitive nature from a young age, as the son of a former rugby player.
His older brother Jake is also a professional rugby player. The family live in Edinburgh and when he turned eight, little Josh began running with the city's Athletics Club.
By 16, he started reaching out to athletic coaches at colleges in the US, aiming to compete in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). After several rejections, the athlete was offered a full scholarship at the University of New Mexico a year later.
Before long, he'd broken the college record and in 2018, graduated to become a professional athlete, joining the Brooks Beasts athletics club, where he still trains. He is under the guidance of coach Danny Mackey, who has said of the middle-distance runner: "I got into this sport to see if a person, on the right team, with grit, intelligence, scary discipline and full of joy, could be the best in the World without cutting corners, no grey areas, all above the board. You gave me that answer."
All athletes have instilled a level of commitment and discipline to be the best they can be, however this can lead to sacrifices along the way, which Josh knows all too well about. He is currently living apart from his fiancée, Larimar Rodriguez, who started her residency as a doctor at the University of Miami in 2023.
Shortly before his success in Budapest, he had given her his phone so he had no distractions. Instead, he had a basic model with just two apps, Fantasy Football and Duolingo, to keep up with his Spanish lessons. He told the official Olympics website : "The best athletes are making sacrifices on a daily basis. I don't live in Scotland any more, I live over in the US [Seattle] away from my parents and family.
"I live in a different state to my fiancée as well. I’ve put in the hard yards, I've done it an honest way and I know that if I come into a championship without missing any days through injury or illness then I’m going to be in a position to medal."
Alongside his intensive training, Kerr credits his use of sunglasses to set him apart from his competitors. His distinctive look provides him with a mental edge over his rivals, he says.
"I think, with the sunglasses, it definitely lets me stand out," Kerr told BBC Sport. "When the glasses go on, it’s game time. In the World Championships last year, I was wearing the darker sunglasses before heading out, so you couldn’t see my eyes.
"I chucked them on in the call room, I was just looking around, seeing what people were doing and no one knew where I was looking, so people were getting a little bit peeved off at me. They were asking, ‘Are you looking at me?’ I was like, ‘Maybe I am, maybe I’m not’, but it’ll rile some people up.
"I’m going to be myself and people can take that as they want but, for me, I’m not too worried about anyone else’s perceptions of me."
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