KEELGOOD FACTOR
Team GB superstar Keely Hodgkinson breaks down in tears as she receives her gold medal on podium at Olympics 2024
The star has been hailed on social media - but struggled to hold it all together in Paris
PUNCHING the air as she crossed the finishing line, Keely Hodgkinson not only made history but changed her life for ever.
The 22-year-old dominated as she won the 800 metres in Paris on Monday, becoming the first woman to bring home an Olympic gold in athletics for Britain since Jessica Ennis-Hill at London 2012.
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It was also the first time Wigan-born runner Keely — who is now tipped to be heading for millionaire status — had clinched the top medal in any global event, after claiming three silvers, including at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
At the Stade de France, she crossed the finish line with a time of 1:56.72, beating Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma by a fraction of a second.
After the victory, Keely said: “I have really grown over the last couple of years, and this year was the year where you could really tell that I had tried to make that step up.”
But getting gold hasn’t been easy.
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Keely faced an uphill battle from her teenage years, having been diagnosed with a tumour that crushed her bones and temporarily robbed her of her ability to walk.
She also overcame an “Olympics comedown” mood slump that left her so depressed that she was unable to leave her bed — and nearly quit sport altogether due to stress.
Few would recognise that side of Keely today.
She is known to discuss tactics with coach Trevor Painter while doing her make-up, to “kill two birds with one stone”, and is regularly late for training.
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She told The High Performance Podcast: “That would be the weakness of my chilled and relaxed state. Being, like, 25 minutes late for training. Luckily my coach is quite chill.”
‘He pushed me out of my comfort zone’
But what Keely lacks in punctuality, she more than makes up for in her commitment to training.
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She pushed herself so hard in preparation for Paris 2024 that she would throw up “every ten days on average”.
Often the sickness hit during her final preparations.
Recalling it, she said: “I probably have already thrown up and I’m thinking, ‘I just want this to be over’.
“It’s like that ability to get back up on to the start and do another one, and just put yourself in even more pain, and just thinking, ‘This will all pay off one day’.”
And it certainly has. Keely’s victory comes 20 years after fellow Brit Kelly Holmes won gold over the same distance in Athens.
Her success has dramatically slashed her odds of winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year and she is predicted to be a millionaire by 2025 due to the sponsorship and brand deals coming her way.
Her torturous regime on the road to Paris was coupled with a winning mindset — imagining what it would be like to be first over the line “probably every day” and how it would change her life.
She said: “I’m quite a visualising person. So, for me, I think to get into that mindset, it would just be like, ‘What’s it going to feel like winning that gold?’”
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Only 12 months ago Keely vowed she would never come second again after winning another silver at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary — her third time as runner-up in a global tournament.
It follows teenage struggles for the young sports star, who grew up in Atherton, Greater Manchester, and went to the same school as pal Ella Toone, who plays footie for England and is two years her senior.
Keely’s athletics talent was discovered in 2012, when she was just ten and came second in a 500 metre race at the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships.
Inspired by Jessica Ennis-Hill’s success at the London Olympics, she ran 16 undefeated races the next year, including a 2km course with a 45-second victory.
Racing for Leigh Harriers, amateur medals began to pile up, and the youngster “sacrificed a lot”, according to early mentor, Margaret Galvin.
She said: “Keely always put racing first. I remember her coming back from family trips to Center Parcs to compete, before heading back again.”
Yet at 13, her career was nearly derailed by a non-cancerous tumour that “had been growing for ten years” in her skull and left her 95 per cent deaf in one ear.
Keely told Sky Sports: “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 (a form of paralysis). That’s quite scary for a 13-year-old girl.”
In 2015 Keely had a mastoidectomy — surgery to remove the tumour — and said she “couldn’t walk” afterwards due to balance issues.
As she recovered she was forced to significantly limit training.
At the same time Keely was struggling with anxiety which threatened her future in athletics.
Shortly before her operation she found she “really didn’t know how to cope with nerves”.
She was due to race a rival in Manchester and realised it would be “really close”.
It was only her dad bribing her with a pair of shoes that made her enter.
She recalled: “I was crapping myself. I was like, ‘I don’t want to do it. I’m too nervous’. He was like, ‘If you do it, I’ll take you to Selfridges and get you a pair of shoes’. It was probably the only time he’s done that. I won by, like, 0.01, but I’m adamant that if I hadn’t, if he hadn’t made me do that race, I would have just quit, shied away. So he really pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
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Keely’s second wobble came as she recovered from her mastoidectomy, when she found it “very difficult” to return from her spell of time out and reduced training.
She overcame the hurdle with the mindset that she was participating again “for fun”, but admitted: “Soon my competitive side kicked in.”
Two years later, in 2017, Keely won her first regional gold, at the England Championships in the 800metres, and the following year she came first at the European Athletics Under-18 Championships, aged just 16.
She continued to prove herself and won a place at Tokyo 2020, which took place a year late due to Covid.
There, she took silver, but after- wards suffered a “stage of depression”, which she described as an “Olympics comedown” that left her struggling to get out of bed.
A year later, at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, Keely claimed silver a second time — just 0.08 seconds behind American opponent Athing Mu — and placed second again the following year in Budapest.
But missing out on the top spot to bring home a hat-trick of second place medals made Keely vow “never again”.
She walked off the track feeling defiant, determined that 2024 would be her year to strike gold.
And on Monday evening she made that dream a reality.
But she doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, hoping to appear in at least two more Olympics.
Keely said: “I hope to be a four-time Olympian and see if we can bring home medals from every single one. That’s a great challenge.”
She celebrated her win by having “a little cheeky drink” with family and friends at a local boozer, and says she didn’t get to sleep until 4.30am — getting just 90 minutes shut-eye — despite having “left earlier than everyone else”.
Now, to honour her success, Keely plans to splash out on a gold Cartier ring and the Porsche she promised herself if she won.
She said: “I’d love it. But I don’t know if my insurance will let me.”
Keely’s life is undoubtedly about to change in a big way.
Nick Ede, brand and culture expert, predicts labels will be lining up to work with her.
“She will be in the running to become a millionaire by 2025 from signing lucrative deals and personal appearances,” he said.
“I can see her getting fashion deals, whether that’s with Little Mistress, like Vogue Williams, or Lipsy, like Selling Sunset cast members.
“She really will have many offers and options which can net her millions. All eyes will be on her to win the coveted Sports Personality of the Year award.
“And she’ll also potentially receive an honour from the King for her services to sport, so this is definitely her time.”
While Keely is tipped for greatness, she remains grounded and, thoughtfully, is focused more on others than her victory.
She hopes her Olympic win has lifted spirits back home during a tumultuous time, with riots erupting over the Southport stabbings.
Keely says: “I have obviously seen what has been going on at home and it’s really sad to see. It’s not nice knowing that.
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“Hopefully it did uplift people and make them proud to be British.
“I was certainly waving the flag around. I just hope it’s a positive future going forward.’’
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