British middle distance running is an exciting place to be right now and the women’s 1500m is no exception.
Revee Walcott-Nolan is in Paris for her second Olympics, alongside Georgia Bell and Laura Muir to form the Team GB 1500m women’s team.
Walcott-Nolan began her athletics journey at Luton AC. She went on to study Sports Science at St Mary’s University, graduating in 2016. During this time, she ran PBs of 2.02 and 4.17 in the 800 and 1500m respectively.
A tough one to take
I’m a lot more confident, experienced and my goals have shifted quite a lot.”
Speaking to SportsShoes about her debut Olympics in Tokyo, she said, “Making the team was a great thing but I fell short of the goals that I had… to miss out on progressing to the semi-finals by 0.01s was tough to take.”
“I’m a completely different athlete now compared to when I competed in Tokyo … I’m a lot more confident, experienced and my goals have shifted quite a lot.”
The training group
Walcott-Nolan previously trained by herself but signed with ON Athletics Club (OAC) Europe at the end of 2023. Coached by Thomas Dreissigacker, the group is based in St Moritz, Switzerland during the summer and Dullstroom, South Africa in winter.
During her interview with Athletics Weekly, she said the biggest difference is “having a team of people around you all with the same goals… before I was literally doing everything by myself and it was hard to stay in the zone and stay motivated, but now it’s quite natural.”
A less than smooth ride
From stress responses to long covid, Walcott-Nolan’s journey so far has been less than smooth. But she now believes she is firmly out the other end. Her new training set up is suiting her well with higher volume (averaging 85 miles/week) and lower intensity compared to the lower volume and higher intensity work she was doing in previous years.
With a fresh PB of 4.00.43 in June in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Walcott-Nolan is ready for the 1500 heats, set for Tuesday 6th August at 09.05 BST. The final commences on Sat 10th August at 19.15 BST – available to watch on BBC One or BBC Two.
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