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Warner took over two months off since his Tokyo triumph and
resumes training on Friday to mark the start of a journey to the
2024 Paris Games where he hopes to become only the fourth man to
successfully defend an Olympic decathlon title.
"There are still some more things that I want to accomplish in
the sport," Warner told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"This past year on and off the track has just been really
special to me and I am looking forward to building on it over
the next three years."
Warner reached the pinnacle of his sport in Tokyo where he led
the men's decathlon from start to finish with an Olympic record
score of 9,018 points.
But in some ways, Warner is still chasing Tokyo silver medallist
Kevin Mayer given the Frenchman set the current world record in
decathlon with 9,126 points in September 2018.
"For me the decathlon is like a giant, crazy impossible puzzle
that I keep trying to solve," said Warner.
"From a technical standpoint there are a lot of events I can
still improve on. From an accomplishment standpoint I still
haven't won a world championship gold medal, that's the only
title I haven't achieved, but also the decathlon world record.
"When me and my coach set out on this decathlon journey that was
one of the things that we talked about and it's one of the
things that I think I am still able to achieve so those will be
the next big pushes for sure."
'LESSONS LEARNED'
The 31-year-old Warner, who has teamed up with Kraft Heinz
Canada to help draw attention to food insecurity ahead of World
Food Day on Saturday, will not have to wait long to make a run
at the decathlon world record.
Warner's competition schedule for 2022 will revolve around the
March 11-13 world indoor championships in Belgrade, Serbia, the
May 28-29 Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, Austria, and the July 15-24
world championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Like many other athletes, Warner's build-up to the Tokyo Games
was far from ideal as the COVID-19 outbreak brought competition
to a halt and resulted in the closure of the facility where he
trained.
Undeterred, Warner used an unheated ice hockey arena that was
converted into a multi-events facility to prepare for Tokyo and
believes the adjustments made during the pandemic will go a long
way toward his Paris goals.
"There are a lot of things we learned during this process with
COVID that we can apply to the years moving forward, especially
with me being an older athlete," said Warner.
"The lessons we learned about not overtraining and keeping
yourself healthy throughout the season and how we can structure
training around that will definitely play a role leading up to
Paris so I can stay healthy and be able to compete at my best."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian
Radnedge)
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