Here is a closer look at Keely Hodgkinson’s life away from the running track as the Olympic 800m champion aims to win at the World Championships in Tokyo
Keely Hodgkinson has her sights on adding another gold medal to her collection as she prepares for the 800m final at the World Championships in Tokyo. The 23-year-old triumphed at the Paris Games last year and looks to have quickly returned to her best after an injury-hit campaign.
Hodgkinson sent a warning shot to her rivals last month as she clocked an impressive 1:54.74 in her first race for 376 days, finishing just 0.13 seconds shy of her national record. The two-time World Championships silver medalist is hoping to finally clinch first place in Tokyo and has even set her sights on eventually challenging Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1:53.28 world record, which has stood for an astonishing 42 years.
After progressing through her 800m heat earlier this week, Hodgkinson confessed that winning at the World Championships would be even more significant than her Olympic gold. “It definitely means a lot, round by round I’m hoping it goes my way,” she told BBC Sport. “It would mean even more than last year, I’m just trying to embrace it all.”
Hodgkinson appears to be embracing the pressure as she chases her first world title. Mirror Sport looks closer at the 800m star’s life away from the running track.
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Keely Hodgkinson’s split from boyfriend
The Team GB star rose to fame following her Olympic victory last year and even clinched the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. However, she did suffer a setback in her personal life at the beginning of 2024, revealing that her three-year relationship with a fellow runner had ended due to struggling with long-distance.
“He lived in Texas for a bit, then in Italy, then London. There was always a distance and, because I do what I do and put that first, we could go weeks, months and not see each other,” she told The Times last October. “I’m not really interested in dating right now,” she added. “I’ve never been on the apps. I like meeting people in real life.”
Friendship with Manchester United star
Hodgkinson is not the only sporting success story from Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley. Despite being a couple of years younger, Hodgkinson struck up a close friendship with future England and Manchester United midfielder Ella Toone, who has won two European Championships with the Lionesses and was part of the team that reached the 2023 World Cup final.
“We are just two young girls living their dreams,” Hodgkinson said in 2022. “Ella and I went to school together. She was two years older but somehow we ended up getting on really well.
“I was always referred to as the ‘mini Ella’ growing up at school. So we kept in touch from that and she was in Tokyo last year as well. We are just two young girls living their dreams.”
Keely Hodgkinson’s tumour battle
While it now seems that Hodgkinson was destined for sporting greatness, she was forced to overcome a major obstacle during her teenage years. It was discovered that Hodgkinson required ear surgery to remove a type of tumour that left her with long-term hearing loss and temporarily unable to walk due to the impact on her balance.
“I had a mastoidectomy which is from memory a type of tumour – but non-cancerous or anything, it wasn’t majorly life-threatening – that had been growing for 10 years,” Hodgkinson told Sky Sports in 2024. “It crushed through my hearing bones and it was just touching my spine. So the risk for the operation was to take it out or keep it in. If you keep it in and let it grow, it can hit the spine and I could end up with Facial Palsy.
“Now that was quite scary for a 13-year-old girl to think that could happen, but the bones were already crushed anyway so they tried to save them but that turned out why I had a lot of hearing problems growing up.”
She added: “I couldn’t walk – which is weird to think – because it’s in your ear, your balance and things like that. But luckily it all went to plan. They got rid of it and I’m just left with missing hearing. It’s not too bad.”
