As the curve of the final bend of the Olympic women’s 800m final began to straighten, three women were lurking on Keely Hodgkinson’s shoulder: waiting for her to wobble, to wilt, to walk away clutching silver again. But this time the 22-year-old from Wigan would not be denied. With a fearlessness that has become her trademark, she kicked for home with an intensity that shook the Stade de France and left her rivals wading through lactic. At last, she was an Olympic champion.
There was a glance up to the stadium scoreboard to make sure there were no gremlins about to steal her moment, before a scream of exhilaration and a thump of the right fist. And then the tears started to flow.
Could you blame her? Hodgkinson could have been forgiven for having PTSD on the startline given that she had returned from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 and 2023 world championships with three silver medals. But this was a different Hodgkinson. She knew that. And so, eventually, did her opponents.
“That was absolutely incredible,” she said. “I have worked so hard for this over 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. And to do it here, where better? The audience was absolutely incredible. It felt like a home crowd to me, and it is held in Paris. I am super happy.”
This wasn’t the way that most expected Hodgkinson to win it. The sense was that the slower the race, the more others would be brought into the reckoning. But having taken the lead after 300m, Hodgkinson kept it steady as she went through halfway in a modest 58.30sec.
The intricate game of cat and mouse continue. The world champion Mary Moraa was on her shoulder. The world indoor champion Tsige Duguma was close enough to touch. And Shafiqua Maloney from St Vincent clearly fancied her chances, too.
But it turned out that Hodgkinson was playing with them, waiting for the moment to strike for glory. With 100m to go, it was time. She pressed hard on the afterburners to storm home in 1min 56.72sec. Duguma took silver in 1:57.15 with Moraa claiming bronze just behind.
“I feel like it could have been run in any way,” Hodgkinson said. “I wanted to be right up at the front and for it to be probably quicker than it was at the bell. But doing a semi-final and final back to back is tough. I felt everyone was tired. So I just wanted to save myself for the last 100m.
“I trusted myself. I could feel Mary pushing me on the back straight but I held my composure. I am super happy.”
With this victory Hodgkinson becomes the third British woman to secure Olympic 800m gold, joining Ann Packer at the 1964 Tokyo Games and Kelly Holmes in Athens in 2004.
It also marks a culmination of a journey that began when, as a 10-year-old, Hodgkinson watched Jessica Ennis-Hill win heptathlon gold at London 2012. At that age Hodgkinson preferred swimming to running and, while her dad would tell her she was even better on the track, her stubborn side initially resisted.
But when she joined her local athletics club, she discovered she was a natural. There was a period, though, in her early teens when she was unable to run at all because of a tumour which has left her deaf in one ear. It wasn’t cancerous. But the operation to remove it carried some risk given it was close to her nervous system. In fact she was told that she could have had facial palsy if it had touched the nerve. Wearing a mask during the pandemic made her realise how much she relies on lip reading.
“I had a little cheeky look up at the screen just to make sure,” she said. “But now I am the Olympic champion for the next four years and no one can take that away from me. I can’t believe it. I feel like I have really grown in the last couple of years. The future’s bright. And I am so happy I can bring it home.”
The hope now is that with this win Hodgkinson will catapult into the sporting stratosphere. And that the wider world will get to know someone who her coach Trevor Painter describes her as bubbly and a free spirit, who often turns up late.
“We have a saying that 15 minutes is OK,” he said. “Sometimes it’s 20 to 25 minutes and she just strolls in smiling. I’m not too bothered about it because Keely is a free spirit. If we contain her, put her in a box and tell her you’ve got to conform to this and want you to be like that, she’ll not be the same person. That kind of free‑spirited nature makes her who she is.”
That much was evident at the Team GB training camp for Paris, where she walked around with Chanel sunglasses and her favourite Louis Vuitton handbag. When some staff pointed out that it was not official GB kit, Hodgkinson just smiled and shrugged it off. Just like she did to her opponents on a wild and wonderful night in Paris.
