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Keely Hodgkinson
English middle-distance runner (born 2002) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Keely Nicole Hodgkinson (born 3 March 2002)[5] is an English middle-distance runner. She is the reigning Olympic champion at 800 m after winning the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. In total, she has won two Olympic medals having won silver at the same distance in the delayed 2020 Games. She is also a two-time European champion in the 800 m and has won two silver medals and a bronze in the same event at World Championship level. She is both the British record holder and the sixth fastest woman ever over 800 m.
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At the age of 19, she won the silver medal at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, while simultaneously breaking the British record set by Kelly Holmes in 1995. Hodgkinson proceeded to win silver medals at several championships; the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games. At European level, Hodgkinson went one step higher, becoming a two-time European champion in 2022 and 2024 and a two-time European indoor champion from 2021 and 2023. She also holds the world indoor best for the 600 metres and was the 2021 Diamond League finals 800 m champion.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Hodgkinson won the gold medal in the Women’s 800 m. In the final, she led the race from early on, and then broke away in the last 100 metres to cross the line ahead of Tsige Duguma and reigning world champion Mary Moraa. Hodgkinson is also a four-time British national senior champion. She was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024, and was awarded an MBE for contribution to athletics in the 2025 New Year Honours list.
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Early life and background
Hodgkinson was born on 3 March 2002 in Atherton, Greater Manchester, and brought up there by parents Dean and Rachel.[6][7] Her mother is also a runner.[8] Hodgkinson attended Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley, where she was friends with fellow pupil and future England footballer Ella Toone.[9][10] Hodgkinson also attended Loughborough College in Leicestershire.[11] In 2021, she completed the first year of a criminology degree course at Leeds Beckett University, but later dropped out to become a full-time athlete.[4][12][13]
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Early and youth career
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Hodgkinson joined Leigh Harriers at the age of nine and won county championships in 800 m, 1200 m, 1500 m, and cross-country races.[14] She initially swam with Howe Bridge Aces Swimming Club before devoting herself fully to running.[15][16][17]
In 2012, aged ten, she competed among seventy finalists at the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships in London. Hodgkinson finished second in the 500 m run and after the 50 m swim she ended in eighth place overall.[15] Her father encouraged her to focus on athletics, and she was inspired by British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.[18][19]
In 2013, she became the first Leigh Harrier to claim the individual U11 girls' title in both the South East Lancashire League and the Red Rose League.[20] She ran her 16th consecutive undefeated race two weeks later, winning on a 2 km course in the Mid-Lancashire Cross Country League at U11 level.[21] On the track, at U13 level, she became Greater Manchester champion in both the 800 and 1200 metres.[5]
In 2014, Hodgkinson won all 13 of her track races (across 800–1500 m events) as well as several cross country competitions.[5] She took her third Greater Manchester title on a 2.75 km cross country course and later defended both her 800 m and 1200 m titles. She broke the championship record in the latter, which had been set in 1985.[22][23]
In 2015, she had to limit training and starts due to a mastoidectomy surgery to remove a tumour on her ear, which has left her 95% deaf in this ear, followed by knee issues.[24] The following year she finished third in the U15 800 m events at both the ESAA English Schools' Championships and England Athletics Championships. Around that period she began to specialise at that distance.[5][25][4]
Hodgkinson almost quit athletics aged 15 but was persuaded to continue by her dad, and the promise of a new pair of 'snazzy shoes'.[26] In 2017, she raced the 800 m in the U17 age category. Finishing fourth at the ESAA Championships, she went on to take her first gold medal at the England Championships, setting a new lifetime best,[1] before adding the 1500 m (UK) School Games title.[27]
2018–2019
In June 2018, aged 16, Hodgkinson became the England U20 800 m champion.[28] The following month, she won the gold medal at the European Athletics U18 Championships held in Győr, Hungary, breaking the championship record in the process with a time of 2:04.84.[29][4] In August, she won the England U17 title before setting a competition record time of 2:04.89 on way to victory at the (UK) School Games.[1][30] She was named by Wigan Borough Council as Sports Achiever of the Year.[5][31]
At the beginning of 2019, her athletics participation was affected by shin problems. She was able to compete at the England U20 Championships in June, placing second, and she earned bronze at the European U20 Championships in Borås, Sweden.[32][33] That year, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows began coaching her.[34]
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Senior career
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2020
On 1 February, aged 17, Hodgkinson set the second-fastest female U20 performance ever in the indoor 800 m at the Vienna Indoor Classic. She set a European U20 record of 2:01.16 to triumph on her international debut at senior level, just 0.13 s off the world U20 record. She broke Kirsty Wade's long-standing British U20 record of 2:02.88 set in 1981, and Aníta Hinriksdóttir's European record for the age group set in 2015 by 0.4 seconds.[35][36] Later that month, she went on to take her first national senior title at the British Indoor Championships.[37] At the end of August, she debuted outdoors at international senior level in Gothenburg, Sweden, recording a new personal best of 2:01.78 as she finished behind the 2019 world silver medallist Raevyn Rogers.[38] The 2020 season was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the 2020 Summer Olympics postponed until the following year.[39] In September, Hodgkinson claimed the British outdoor title to become the youngest winner over 800 m since 1974.[37][40] She improved her personal best again with a time 2:01.73, when ending her season with a fifth place finish in Rovereto, Italy three days later.[41]
2021: Tokyo Olympic silver medallist
2021 proved to be a breakthrough year for Hodgkinson, and it began in Vienna with her becoming the first British woman to set a world U20 record since Zola Budd 36 years previously.[42] Having arrived in Vienna after Covid-induced travel complications, she won the 800 m for the second consecutive year with a time of 1:59.03. This marked the first time that she had completed the event in under two minutes, and also broke the world indoor U20 record. She shaved two seconds off the previous best set by Ethiopia's Meskerem Legesse in 2004.[43] Her record did not last for long, as Hodgkinson's contemporary, Athing Mu, improved the new record the following month to 1:58.40.[44]
Hodgkinson made her debut in a senior major championship at the 2021 European Indoor Championships, four days after her 19th birthday. She became the second youngest British winner in the competition (after 400 m runner Marilyn Neufville), and the youngest ever British women's 800 m European indoor champion after a win in Toruń, Poland.[45][46]
In May, Hodgkinson secured her first major international outdoor victory at the Golden Spike in Ostrava, Czechia, recording a sub-two minute mark outdoors for the first time after clocking 1:58.89. She broke by almost a second the UK junior record which had been held by Charlotte Moore. Her time was also the European junior record, beating Birte Bruhns' mark of 1:59.17 set in 1988.[47][48] At the end of June, she sealed a place in the British team for the Tokyo Olympics by defending her title at the 2021 British Athletics Championships. The competition also doubled as the Olympic trials, and she overcame Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie on the final straight to seal victory.[49][50] A week later, she set a British U23 record by lowering her personal best to 1:57.51 when finishing fourth at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.[51]
Before the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in August, she ranked eighth on the season's list and fifth among women entered.[52][53] At the games, she placed second in her heat and then won her semi-final with the fourth-fastest time of the semi-finals. In the final, Hodgkinson won the silver medal, taking almost two seconds off her personal best and almost six seconds off her pre-2021 best with a time of 1:55.88. She was beaten by Mu who clocked 1:55.21. Hodgkinson broke Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21 in the race, and also beat the European U20 best (1:57.45) which had been set in 1978.[54][55][56] She also set a continental U23 record.[57] After the race, Hodgkinson acknowledged that the Olympics' postponement had benefitted her, explaining, "If the Olympics had been last year I wouldn't have been here, but suddenly it's given me a year to grow and compete with these girls."[58]
On her return to the Diamond League circuit, Hodgkinson came fifth in Eugene, then second in Brussels,[59] and ended the season with a victory at the Zürich final in September, winning her first Diamond League race and first Diamond Trophy.[60][61][62]
Hodgkinson's early athletics career had been funded by her parents, and in 2020, she was not named by British Athletics as a recipient of £15,000 of lottery funding. Businessman, Barrie Wells, who had previously helped fund 18 athletes to the 2012 London Olympics, stepped in and matched the £15,000 a year that she had missed out on. This allowed Hodgkinson to attend warm-weather training in Florida, and she is now one of Wells Trust's athlete ambassadors.[63][64] In October 2021, British Athletics announced that Hodgkinson would receive lottery funding.[65]
2022: World silver medallist
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At the beginning of the season, Hodgkinson revealed that she was targeting medals at the World Indoor Championships in March as well as three major outdoor championships in the summer: the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and the European Championships. Stating her aims, Hodgkinson said "I’d love four major medals. It’s definitely physically possible to do all four. Mentally, we’ll see. The world outdoors is No 1 and I really want to do the Commonwealths, as it is a home Games. With the Europeans we’ll see how the body and mind are coping."[66]
Hodgkinson opened her athletics year on 19 February with the fastest indoor 800 m performance by a woman in 20 years with 1:57.20, at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. It was the quickest mark since the precise day she was born, when the indoor world record was set by Jolanda Čeplak. Her time set a new British indoor record, the fastest ever mark by a teenager, and the sixth-fastest indoor mark of all time.[67][68] In March, Hodgkinson headed to the World Indoors in Belgrade. She suffered a quad injury during her warm-up for the event and was forced to withdraw.[69]
On 21 May, Hodgkinson competed at the Diamond League event in Birmingham, claiming victory in the 800 m.[70] She then had further sucess in the Diamond League, claiming victories in Eugene (with a world leading time for the year of 1:57.72),[71] Oslo (beating international teammate Muir into second),[72] as well as finishing runner-up behind Mary Moraa in Stockholm.[1]
In the 800 m at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Hodgkinson claimed silver after finishing 0.08 s behind Mu. Hodgkinson recorded a season's best time of 1:56.38, and afterwards, she reflected, "I'm definitely a little bit annoyed but being on another world podium in my second year of being in the professional world of athletics is something I should be proud of."[73][74] Less than two weeks later, at the Commonwealth Games, she claimed another silver medal, this time finishing behind Moraa.[75] Later in August, she secured her first major senior outdoor gold, winning the 800 m at the European Championships held in Munich in a time of 1:59.04. She finished half a second clear of Rénelle Lamote and remarked afterwards "I’m just happy to finally be on top of the podium."[76][77]
In September, she finished in fifth place at the Zürich Diamond League final.[78] Hodgkinson's time at the Birmingham indoor event earlier in the year, made her the world leader for the season with a nearly 1.3-second advantage, while her result from the World Championships final ranked as the second quickest time for the year outdoors.[79][80]
2023
"This one is definitely for him. He had a lot of belief in little 10-year-old me [...]. I hope to make him really proud and I know he will be up there watching [...]."
Hodgkinson got her 2023 campaign off to a good start on 28 January at the Manchester Regional Arena in Manchester. She set a new world indoor record time in the less frequently run distance of 600 metres with a time of 1:23.41, beating Olga Kotlyarova's record set in 2004 by 0.03 s.[84][85] Hodgkinson then won for the first time on the World Indoor Tour in the 800 m category, before prevailing in all her races during the series. She took victories in Toruń (meet record of 1:57.87), Liévin in France and the Tour Final in Birmingham, where she improved her own British indoor record with 1:57.18.[86][87][88] She rounded off her indoor season with a successful defence of her European title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul. She dedicated the win to her first coach in athletics, Joe Galvin, who had died a few days earlier.[89][83]
Outdoors, the 21-year-old clinched victory at the Paris Diamond League on 9 June, breaking her British record by 0.11 s in a time of 1:55.77.[90][91] She also competed in and won the 400 m at the England U23s with a new personal best time of 52.24. The time was also a championship record, eclipsing the mark of 52.43 set by Christine Ohuruogu in 2005.[92] She then lost in the 800 m to Moraa at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting in Switzerland.[93] Having been appointed co-captain of the British team at the European U23 Championships in Espoo, Finland, she competed in the 400 m. Hodgkinson went on to secure bronze, clocking a new personal best of 51.76.[94][1] Later she missed the Anniversary Games Diamond League meeting in London, in what would have been her debut at the Olympic Stadium, due to an illness.[95]
At the World Championships in Budapest, Hodgkinson passed Mu in the final straight to defeat her for the first time, but could not overhaul Moraa at the finish, ultimately finishing second in the 800 m with a time of 1:56.34, around 0.3 s separating her from both the champion Moraa (1:56.03) and third-placed Mu (1:56.61). Afterwards, Hodgkinson said "Another podium, another medal, that’s definitely a positive.”[96] Hodgkinson finished runner-up to Mu in the Eugene Diamond League final, and improved on her own British record with a time of 1:55.19.[97][98]
2024
Hodgkinson opened her 2024 season on 15 May, running a 400 m personal best time of 51.61 at a meeting in Savona, Italy. She finished second behind Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley.[99] On 25 May, she competed in her first 800 m event of the season at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon. Hodgkinson overtook Moraa with 150 metres remaining and she claimed victory in a world-leading time for the year of 1:55.78.[100]
In June, Hodgkinson competed while suffering from illness at the European Championships in Rome. She held off Gabriela Gajanová to retain the title she had won two years previously. Speaking about the upcoming Summer Olympics after her European win, Hodkinson said "I’m super excited for Paris...The Olympic Games are so special, it's a huge opportunity to change your life and I’m just ready to go for it."[101] At the Diamond League meeting in London on 20 July, Hodgkinson finished in first place and also set a new British 800 m record time of 1:54:61. Her time made her the sixth fastest woman in history over the distance.[102][103] On 7 July, Hodgkinson triumphed at the FBK Games in Hengelo, pulling away from Prudence Sekgodiso on the final bend to secure the victory in a time of 1:57.36.[104]
At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Hodgkinson clinched the gold medal in the women's 800 m final with a time of 1:56.72. Tsige Duguma finished second in 1:57.15. Hodgkinson became the third British woman to have won Olympic gold at the distance, and the tenth British woman to win an athletics gold in the history of the games. Afterwards, Hodgkinson stated "I have worked really hard for the last year and I think you can see how much it meant to me when I crossed the line. I can't believe I have finally done it!"[105][106] A large mural was then painted at Stevenson Square in Manchester to honour her achievement.[107] On 21 August, she announced she would miss the rest of the season due to injury.[108][109] At the end of the year, Hodgkinson stated her ambition to break the women's 800 m world record held by Jarmila Kratochvílová who ran 1:52.28 in 1983.[110]
2025
On 13 February, Hodgkinson intended to make an attempt to break Čeplak's 23-year-old indoor 800 m world record at the Keely Klassic, a new competition named after her.[111] However, she was forced to withdraw two days prior to the meet, due to a hamstring tear.[112][113]
Hodgkinson took part in her first race in over a year at the Diamond League event in Silesia on 16 August. She won in a new 800 m world leading time for the year of 1:54.74, which was also her second fastest time ever.[114][115] Hodgkinson then secured back-to-back victories in the Diamond League with another victory on 20 August in Lausanne. Her time of 1:55.69 was a meeting record. After the race, Hodgkinson, speaking about her comeback from long-term injury, stated "I couldn't have asked for a better start, I'm a bit in shock myself."[116]
In September, she won a bronze medal in the 800 metres at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo after finishing behind Lilian Odira and Georgia Hunter Bell.[117]
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Personal life
Hodgkinson has a keen interest in fashion and attended London Fashion Week in 2024. Speaking about her approach to combining her athletics with her love for fashion, Hodgkinson has stated "I get ready for a track meet as if I’m going out. It’s like a stage’ you’re preparing to perform."[118][119]
She is a Manchester United fan and was invited to Old Trafford after winning Olympic gold in 2024.[120]
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Achievements
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Information taken from World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.[1] Last updated on 15 May 2024.
Personal bests
International competitions
Circuit wins and titles
800 metres wins, other events specified in parentheses.
- Diamond League women's 800 metres champion:
2021,[124] 2023
- World Athletics Continental Tour
- World Athletics Indoor Tour women's 800 metres overall winner: 2023
- 2022: Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix (WL MR NR)
- 2023: Manchester World Indoor Tour (Bronze level, 600 m, WB), Toruń Copernicus Cup (WL MR), Liévin Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais (WL), Birmingham World Indoor Tour Final (WL MR NR)
Progression
Key: Lifetime best
– World rank from World Athletics' Season Top Lists. 1U18 ranking, 2U20 ranking.
National championships and competitions
Track results only. Hodgkinson competed also at the ECCA English Championships (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being fifth on a 5 km course in 2018, and at the cross country ESAA Championships (2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being second on a 3.8 km course also in 2018.[5]
Key: National championships; Other National level events
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Honours and awards
- 2018
- Wigan Borough Council: Wigan Sports Achiever of the Year[31]
- British Athletics Supporters Club: BASC Young Female Athlete of the Year[125]
- 2021
- British Athletics Writers' Association: Cliff Temple Award for British Female Athlete of the Year[126]
- British Athletics Supporters Club: BASC Athlete of the Year[125]
- Athletics Weekly: British Rising Star and British Female Athlete of the Year[127][128]
- 2023
- Believe Star on the Walk of Fame outside Leigh Town Hall[129]
- 2024
- BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award[130]
- MBE for contribution to athletics in the King's New Year Honours[131][132]
- Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year[133][134]
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Notes
- Although European Athletic Association recognises under-20 and U23 records outdoors, it, however, acknowledges only U20 age category in indoor competitions.
- World indoor under-20 record until 27 February 2021.
References
External links
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