Damian Warner: “world championship win would be an ultimate dream”

On Tuesday, Olympic decathlon champion and Canadian record holder Damian Warner announced a partnership with lululemon, a few days before the start of the World Athletic Championships (WCH 22) in Eugene, Ore. Warner earned the title of World’s Greatest Athlete after taking home gold for Canada at the Tokyo Olympics. We caught up with Warner to talk about training, mental health, his family, and the upcoming WCH 22.

How important is winning the world championship title to you?

It’s really important. When I look at a list of things I wanted to accomplish in this sport, obviously an Olympic gold medal was one of them, and a world record was one of them. An individual outdoor world championship medal would be really cool. I think that’s the only one I’m missing from a title standpoint, so if I was able to get that, it would be an ultimate dream for me. When my coaches and I started training for the decathlon, before I could even list off all 10 events, we said I was going to be world champion, and I think that’s been the one elusive part. I’m prepared, I’m ready to go get it.

Part of the platform you share with lululemon is about encouraging people to care for their mental well-being. What do you do to maintain mental health in such high-pressure situations?

As I got older, I learned that sharing my frustrations or things that I’m dealing with with my team made things easier to handle. That’s why I advocate for anybody, really, to have a strong support system around you, because those people are invaluable. I have my girlfriend, my coaches and my sports psychologist, and it means a lot that I am able to be open and talk to them, and they can point me in the right direction if need be.

How are you feeling heading into the World Championships?

My training over the last little while, especially the last three weeks since the Harry Jerome Classic, has been going really well. Now it’s just a matter of staying healthy, staying relaxed, and going there and just doing what we’ve been doing all year. It should be a good competition.

Which event in the decathlon is your favourite?

It changes all the time! I’m known for being very strong on the first day, but I’ve really grown to like the second day, because that’s been a challenge for me. Hurdles have always been one of my strongest events, but the discus, the pole vault, the javelin and the 1,500m are all more mentally challenging events for me. I’ve had to overcome barriers and obstacles and technical challenges, and learned to embrace those over the last couple of years. I feel like if I want to get to where I want to go, world-record range, it’s going to come on the second day and not the first.

What are your favourite foods before and after workouts?

I always have oatmeal with nuts and berries mixed into it.  I also really like eggs and toast, and you can never go wrong with a good sandwich.

What does a training day look like for you?

Right now the schedule at the facility we train at is set in stone, so we have the track from Monday through Friday, five days a week. We’re at the track from 10 in the morning to 1 p.m., two of those five days. During the five days we’ll try to hit every event, so for example on a Monday we’ll do some speedwork, some plyometrics, some long jump, and then that might be a full day, short and explosive, in and out. The next day might be shotput, discus, weights–just to stay off the spikes, because we don’t want to be on spikes every day. On Wednesday we might do pole vault and a speed/endurance workout, on Thursday we’ll do hurdles, high jump and some weights, and on Friday we’ll probably do javelin, maybe another throw, and finish it off with some 1,500m running.

That’s a lot to fit in! Do you take the weekends off to recover?

Yes, for the most part. If we feel like we need to, we’ll go to a local high school and do some 1,500m running, but usually, we stick to that schedule. It works! It allows me to stay healthy and it checks all the boxes.

How has being a parent changed your training regime?

It has certainly added new challenges. I’ve had to find different ways to recover, like going to bed earlier, because I know I’m going to get woken up at a certain time in the morning. If anything, it’s made my training more fun, because Jen and Theo have been coming to the track every so often. It’s been fun to see Theo trying to copy me going out of the blocks, or trying to throw the javelin, which is at least twice as long as him. It’s really cool to me that I go away to these competitions and he’s been able to watch me on TV, and Jen sends me videos of him trying to mimic me. It’s one of the coolest things to know that we have such an impact on our kids’ lives. I think it’s why I take such responsibility for the way that I act and present myself, because I know he’s going to be watching. I want him to grow up learning to respect himself and respect others.

What do you guys like to do as a family?

These days Jen and I seem to spend a lot of time watching Theo and turning to each other in amazement, like it still hasn’t totally sunk in yet that we’re parents! We go for walks, we play in the backyard in the sprinkler, we go to a little splash pad nearby, because it’s been so hot out lately. We’re always finding new things to do, and it leads us to that question: “what did we do with all our spare time before we had a child?”

Lululemon mentions you are emphasizing community-building in your work with them; what does that mean to you?

I want to give back to the community in every way possible, both in Ontario and ultimately Canada. I grew up in a fairly low-income neighborhood; there were a lot of kids who were like me and didn’t have a lot of direction as to what was possible. I’ve seen through my experiences going to the Olympics that you can do anything you set your mind to. I want to inspire kids who are in a similar position as I was that you can do whatever you want, whether it’s being an athlete, a leader in a business, a reporter, anything. I think the possibilities are endless, and I think that kids need to hear that message.