Jenny Simpson: Being her best self

Jenny Simpson's career-to-date has had one simple goal: how good can she be at something.

"Seeing me get the best out of myself is the greatest reward through the course of my career," the 1,500m runner told the Olympic Channel podcast last month.

"When I put on the USA uniform that then expands into how can we be the best team possible and I'm one cog in that wheel."

However, while this circle has been the norm throughout her time as a professional runner, the Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist sees this changing ahead of the postponed Olympic Games in Tokyo this year.

"I think this now, has taken that circle out to a greatest degree to a global level of how good can we be as a global community and I think the Olympics is perfectly positioned to be the place where we really champion that pursuit," Simpson explained.

Last year has been difficult for everyone across the globe but once again it is finally an Olympic year - although a year later than originally expected.

Many athletes - Olympic and Paralympic - believe that the Tokyo 2020 Games will be an important moment for the global community coming together.

"We were battered, all across the globe. I understand the sentiment of like us all ‘coming together’ but even more important than that is coming together to see how great we can be."

"It's not a competition of kindness, it's going to be a competition of excellence and I'm really excited. I get chills thinking about it, I want to be a part of that."

An unexpected victory

The 2011 World Championships isn't a race the American middle-distance runner will forget.

Just two years prior, Simpson had run a North American record time of 9:12.50 to finish fifth in the steeplechase at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. And the year before that while still at university, Simpson represented the United States at Bejing 2008, finishing ninth in the 3,000m steeplechase.

However, come to the starting line in Daegu, Republic of Korea for the 2011 World Championships, she was in the 1,500m.

Having started 2011 by winning both the mile and 3,000m at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Simpson qualified for the 1,500m at World Championships after finishing second in the US Track and Field Championships.

"I still on occasion watch that race, and still find myself anxious and nervous that it turns out the way I remember it," she said.

With 400m to the finish line, Simpson was in ninth by the 200m mark, despite being in sixth place, she was within contention of a medal with seven other runners.

But that's when the momentum shifted and Simpson slowly but surely moved up the pack before the Iowa-born athlete powered down the final 100m stretch to win her first world title.

In fact, she was the first American woman since Mary Decker at the inaugural World Championships in 1983 to win the 1,500m.

Speaking on the podcast, Simpson recalled a recent conversation with her dad about whether or not she watched old videos of herself racing.

"I was telling him that it's funny when I watch the races, as they were broadcast, because it doesn't match my memory of the race because I have such a different view of it," Simpson said.

"Especially a race like 2011 where I'm hanging back and behind for so long. Then as I'm making this progression up there's this incremental progress that I'm making in my head as I'm racing but if you're watching as a spectator you have so much more anticipation and hope that I'm going to win. And that wasn't going through my head."

A three year roller-coaster

The time between 2014 and 2017 was a "stretch of crazy ups and downs", Simpson said.

"I experienced it all, I had the surprises, I had the anticipated victories… and I also had the real surprise tragedies."

The American had finished the 2014 season as the world no.1 and won the Diamond League but at the World Championships the following year the unexpected happened.

With 700m left in her pet event, the heel of her left shoe was clipped and resulted in the then 29-year-old kicking it off 100m later unable to hold her foot inside. Considering just stopping the race altogether to stop further damage to her foot, Simpson continued on to finish 11th in 4:16.28.

Then less than a year later, at the Rio 2016 Games, Simpson became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the 1,500m when she clinched bronze. And the medal rush didn't end there.

At the 2017 World Championships she just missed out on clinching gold by 0.2 seconds, settling for silver behind Kenya's Faith Kipyegon. While it has been an experience of ups and downs, reflecting back on those years, it's something she is grateful for.

"I'm going to finish my career at some point, someday and I'm going to know I felt it all," she said. "I have excellent coaches and a wonderful, loving inner circle around me that has helped me stay even through all of that so it doesn't feel as much as a rollercoaster as it looks like in ink."

For Simpson, what has made the ups and downs easier to handle is knowing that there is always going to be another chance to race.

"It's good to come off the track on your worst day and know there's going to be another race, I'm going to have another chance," she explained before adding, "and it's also equally as good to come off a really good day and say 'this is a result of all the work we've been doing for a really long time'."

"One day doesn’t change [things], it's been the accumulation of a lot of hard work."

Simpson is yet to qualify for Tokyo 2020 with her chance set to come at the US Olympic Trials - Track and Field taking place between 18-27 June 2021.