Keely Hodgkinson exclusive: Olympic 800m champion aiming for first World Athletics Championships gold | Olympics News

On the face of it, two hamstring injuries this year alone don’t appear to be the best preparation for any attempt to become a World champion. But – and this is a very big but – these setbacks may just end up making Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson a more dangerous, intimidating opponent.

Last summer at the Paris Olympics, so spectacular was Hodgkinson’s run to gold that it was not just a British highlight, but one which was exalted far and wide. She was that good.

The women’s 800m field has some talent in it and, while up to Paris 2024 she was part of the elite group, by the end of the Olympics she was out on her own. She had gone to another level where, injury aside, the world was quite literally her oyster.

She had commentators open-mouthed, and one of Team GB’s greatest middle-distance runners – indeed the President of World Athletics, Seb Coe – suggesting she could dominate the 800m for years to come.

A year of ups and downs

Being Olympic champion suits Hodgkinson. She’s not boring, and rather than retreat to the shadows, she celebrated – in style. Aboard a yacht and on the sun-soaked beaches of Marbella, Keely took it all in with a huge smile and shared her success with her friends and family.

Having known Hodgkinson for a while, and her coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows for even longer, it is in Keely’s mentality to enjoy her success with those around her – those who are there to support. She is, and will be, generous.

Celebrating, though, is actually part of one of the many reasons Hodgkinson has become one of the greatest 800m runners. She knows how important the horrible days, weeks, and months of training are. She gets the pressure of racing, but it’s not all she does or all she talks and thinks about. She has balance in her life.

So when exploring a new way to deliver athletics to audiences through her ‘Keely Klassic’ meet in Birmingham last February, she saw a way – through some glitz and glam as well as top-notch performances – that athletics could attract new and younger people to watch the sport.

On the eve of the meet, though, Hodgkinson revealed an injury would prevent her from racing that February weekend. The next day, you could see the pain, frustration, tiredness, and indeed serious worry that a hamstring injury brings.

She told Sky Sports News that day in Birmingham that she’d need to rest and rehab for six weeks. Then she would know where her body was and could plan her attack on the outdoor season – and ultimately, at the end of the season, aim to be crowned world champion.

Her coaches were optimistic, although with their experience in high-performance sport, they knew a hamstring injury for any highly tuned athlete can be tricky to recover from – but even trickier to train on to begin with. You’ve not just got the vulnerability of an injured hamstring, but the rest of the body has been out of sync for several weeks.

There were setbacks, and rather than just an initial six-week layoff, her injuries – although minor – delayed her preparations. Ultimately, she only returned to the track one year and 11 days – or 376 days, if you prefer – after her Olympic gold medal victory in Paris.

That’s a long time away from the track, but it didn’t seem to have affected Hodgkinson. Did she come back with a gentle stretch out? An easy race? Nope. Instead, in August at a meet in Silesia, Poland, she ran a world-leading time and set a meet record of 1:54.74. Far from shabby! In fact, she had only ever competitively run faster than that just once before.

This year, as well as having some downs and then the journey back up, also saw Hodgkinson receive an MBE at Windsor Castle in May. Who was with her? Not just family – she brought along one of her coaches, Painter. She made the former rugby league player don a smart suit and be part of her day, her success.

World records

It was hoped 2025 would not only see Hodgkinson upgrade her two World Championship silver medals from Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023 to gold at Tokyo, but possibly see attempts at both the World Indoor and Outdoor 800m records – though her hamstring injury has more than likely, but not completely, put a hold on those attempts.

After winning Olympic gold, Hodgkinson’s speed and race craft – along with ambition – saw her exclusively tell Sky Sports late last year at an altitude training camp in the Pyrenees that she wanted to target the two 800m world records.

The most realistic, agreed by her and her coaches, would be an attempt at the World Indoor record – that was scuppered by her torn hamstring on the eve of the Keely Klassic in February. But… a longer-term plan was being hatched to beat the longest-surviving track World Record in women’s athletics.

The women’s 800m record has stood since 1983 – a whopping 42 years! It still belongs to Jarmila Kratochvilova, who ran for Czechoslovakia and set a time of 1:53.28. To give you a sense of the enormity of challenging this record – of which there is some controversy, as it occurred during an era where a number of accusations around doping were made – Hodgkinson’s personal best over 800m is well over a second slower at 1:54.61. In the 800m, 1.33 seconds is a lifetime.

To compare it with the men’s 100m, it’s like saying Usain Bolt’s fastest time is 9.58 seconds, but the world record is somewhere in the 9.3s. It’s going to be tough to break at Tokyo. Although Hodgkinson is the fastest 800m runner in the world this season, her best time is a second and a half slower than the world record.

It would be an extraordinary feat from Hodgkinson – so extraordinary and highly unlikely that it’s probably unfair of me to even give the slightest suggestion a world record attempt is possible, given her injuries this season. Also, it’s not just something that ‘happens’.

Why ‘real deal’ Keely will win gold

Barring an injury we don’t know about – or one Hodgkinson and her coaches don’t know about – she is the standout athlete to take gold in Tokyo and become world champion. If she does, she will be the reigning Olympic and World 800m champion.

I’m not putting a gold medal around her neck before a race is run, though, as there are some great runners who will challenge. Perhaps the greatest threat is from a friend and someone who is part of the same coaching group – Olympic 1500m bronze medallist from Paris 2024, Georgia Hunter-Bell, who has opted to run in the 800m at Tokyo and take on her friend.

Olympic glory in Paris changed Hodgkinson by elevating her status. She was only 22 at the time, so she’s years from reaching her full potential – which is why so many observers are excited about the legacy Hodgkinson could lay down not just now, but over years to come.

Current World Athletics president Coe, one of the greats of middle-distance running in the 1980s – winning four Olympic medals including two 1500m golds and setting a long-standing men’s 800m world record in 1981 – sees a succession of Hodgkinson triumphs for years to come.

“She is the real deal,” Coe told Sky Sports. Could she be the greatest of all time? Coe replied: “Absolutely, she could. I have no doubt about that… she could end up at the top of the heap internationally if she goes on. Touch wood, she has many seasons ahead of her, and she’s also got good coaches in Meadows and Painter. I’ve spoken to her enough times to know that mentally, she’s mahogany hard.”

So, she’s the real deal according to Coe – but to fully explain why, it’s important to understand she’s not just mentally tough; she packs a punch physically as well. The 800m is lung-busting. It’s a distance where runners are as close to sprinting as they can be while having the stamina to last two laps of the track.

Hodgkinson is blessed with speed. She’s a very good 400m runner, and that can be a huge asset in the closing stages of an 800m – as she showed in Paris last year. None of her opponents were close because she had fuel left in the tank to light the afterburners. That stamina comes from hard graft: training, training, and more training.

Her regime away from the flashlights of Olympic and World finals is well planned to get the best out of her physically – but it takes effort. Late last year, after enjoying the fruits of her success in Paris, she was living and training at altitude in the Pyrenees. There’s less oxygen at altitude, so training often hurts more as you gasp to get air through your lungs.

As Hodgkinson’s coach Painter told Sky Sports: “There is a real point to it. Down at sea level there’s about 20 per cent oxygen, but at altitude it’s less – 16, 17, 18 per cent – so the body has to learn to work harder at everything. Once it gets used to it, the training and work is done. Hopefully then the rewards play out later in the season and on the track – but it can hurt!”

Any athlete will tell you – while grimacing – about the dreaded ‘winter block’ training. For Hodgkinson, over the past year it’s not only been altitude in the Pyrenees, but also in Potchefstroom, South Africa – an albeit more pleasant dry climate, but again, the point is to work hard. This is another reason for her success so far, and perhaps more to come. Hodgkinson works very hard, but (having seen it firsthand) is brilliant at getting away from thinking about training, thinking about athletics, and transporting herself to another part of her life.

Athletics is important to her – but so is having a life. She’s a fan of fashion and of being with friends. One of her close friends has been a photographer/videographer for her on trips – doing a job, but also there to talk about anything and everything that isn’t athletics or training.

She and her family, as well as coach Trevor, are all Manchester United fans – perhaps the less said about that right now, the better – but United invited her to Old Trafford last season to present her with her own framed shirt, with Gary Pallister doing the honours on the pitch at half-time against Tottenham.

It’s the overall package Hodgkinson presents to her opponents and the watching public that also has an effect: steely hard, determined, naturally gifted, but also with balance and a life away from sport. It’s a psychological edge she just possesses.

Again, I’ll use a Usain Bolt comparison. When he lined up for a 100m final – usually in lane four or five (the best lanes to qualify to) – the other eight or nine sprinters would, at some point, let their gaze wander to Bolt. Whether walking to the blocks, during warm-up, or just before the gun – it would happen.

Bolt knew this and smiled inside. Part of the job of winning was already done. It’s becoming a similar thing with Hodgkinson. Her opponents will just have a look – and she’ll know.

The medal makers behind the scenes

No one person at the elite end of any sport is the sole reason for success. For Hodgkinson, she’s made it clear there’s a big team behind her – from family and close friends to coaches who are regarded as friends.

Husband-and-wife duo Meadows and Painter have been looking after her for several years. Their young daughter regards Hodgkinson as an ‘aunt’ and often comes to training sessions in Manchester, mimicking the drills and stretches being done by the group.

It adds to the atmosphere – the sense of family and relaxed environment. Yes, they’re working hard, but life goes on and is much more fun if you can engage with the little one trying to take you on over 30m!

Meadows was a serious middle-distance talent herself, winning 800m World Championship bronze in 2009. Interestingly, she was also a very handy 400m runner – so it’s no surprise Hodgkinson’s raw speed has been channelled into the 400m when needed. Her coach for part of her career was her husband Trevor – himself a 400m runner and a rugby league player coming through the academy at Wigan Warriors.

It was in Wigan where the pair met, and Jenny asked Trevor to coach her. They’ve now built a hugely impressive and successful coaching setup called M11 (named after the Manchester postcode they’re based in), and Hodgkinson isn’t the only celebrated athlete on the books. We’ve mentioned Olympic bronze medallist Hunter-Bell, but athletes from all over the UK are part of the group, which specialises in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m.

Last year, the pair were coaching 19 elite-level international athletes. Eight competed at the Paris Olympics, with three medalling. It’s led not only to awards for Hodgkinson, but for her coaches too. Trevor received the 2024 Coaching Achievement Award at the World Athletics Awards, and both Jenny and Trevor have been inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.

A team in life and in work – but as Trevor has told me, they have defined roles. At an altitude training camp last November, Painter told Sky Sports: “Jen can walk the walk and talk the talk, all that. She’s all over that, and I can do the plans. That’s what I did when I coached Jen, and now it’s similar – but Jen can bring all those plans to place.

“We bring different things to the party, I hope. We try for the family feel – it’s better for us, but better for the athletes. Everyone knows they need to work hard, but fun and a little perspective away from it all (training) goes a long way.”

Tokyo and beyond

Should Hodgkinson win gold at the World Championships in Tokyo, she will be an Olympic and World Champion at just 23 years of age. Add to that the Olympic silver medal she won at just 19, and two World Championship silvers – and she’s already building a decent collection. Due to her age and talent, the size of that collection is up for speculation. As Coe said, she could be the greatest of all time.

Given 2025 has seen her contend with injury setbacks, taking gold in Tokyo would be a stellar achievement – but we’d still be at the beginning of her medal haul if she’s successful there. At the LA 2028 Olympics, she’ll be approaching her peak in terms of age – she’ll only be 26 – but for many, she’s already the favourite to retain her Olympic title.

Before that, in 2027, another World Championships takes place in Beijing. Post-LA 2028, the World Championships may well be on home soil in London. If she has the desire to keep going, she would only be 30 when Brisbane hosts the 2032 Olympics.

It’s all ifs, buts, and maybes – but if she remains healthy and content with her sport, ‘mahogany hard’ Hodgkinson may well be on track to become one of the most decorated track and field athletes of all time.