Inside Keely Hodgkinson’s ‘powerful’ love life, ‘scary’ tumour and large web value

Keely Hodgkinson was crowned the winner of the BBC Sport Personality of the Year award after her Olympic glory – but it hasn’t been a smooth road to success

Keely Hodgkinson was crowned BBC’s Sport Personality of the Year on Tuesday – but who really is the 20-something decorated Olympian?

The middle-distance runner proved to be Team GB’s golden girl this year in Paris where she managed to bag our first Olympic track title since Mo Farah’s win in 2016. At the age of just 22, Keely is the world’s reigning champion of the women’s 800m – though she had to come a long way to get her crowning glory.

Reflecting on her season, Hodgkinson told the BBC: “Growing up I always knew I had a talent in the sport. I get the best out of my self when I have something to aim for… This year has been incredible and I achieved everything that I set out to do on the outdoor track.”

While Keely looks fit as a fiddle and is happy as larry with her iconic win, she’s had to battle some terrifying health battles and endure heartbreak just before her huge win.

So, let’s have a look at the new Sports Personality of the Year winner in more detail – from her scary tumour that grew for 10 years, her massive net worth and dating life.

‘Run club to raking it in’

Keely was born in 2002 – making her part of Gen Z. But instead of spending her time on TikTok and YouTube, her focus has always been sport. She grew up in Atherton, Greater Manchester, with her parents Rachel and Dean who fully supported their daughter’s athletic dreams.

Her mum and dad both had an interest in running, with Rachel training track and Dean having competed in marathons. However, Keely’s initial interest was in swimming.

This quickly changed as she found her love for running when making her first dent in track at the age of 10, where she went to compete in the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships in London.

In this 2012 competition, Keely ended up finishing in an impressive second place in the 500 metres and finished eighth in 50m swim. This was also the year the London Olympics – where Keely found herself inspired by sporting legend Jessica Ennis-Hill.

She told the BBC after her SPOTY win, “I took great inspiration from Jessica Ennis-Hill at London 2012.

“You start to dream into your teenage years…There is a definitely a difference [between silver and gold]. The blonde hair stands out the most! It has been amazing since Paris.”

Fast-forward to now, Keely has become the 10th British woman to win athletics gold at the Olympics. She’s retained her European 800m title and then set a national 800m record of one minute 54.61 seconds at the London Diamond League.

Since her sensational Olympics win, Keely is set to lead a glamorous life with huge brands showing an interest in the young woman – with deals already with Nike and Omega. It’s thought that her net worth is already a huge £250,000.

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But, it’s predicted that she will make millions on top of that thanks to non-stop brand deals and endorsements.

The athlete already works with beauty giant Rimmel and skincare Avene – but her agent revealed that interest has been shown from some of the most globally recognised brands.

Could high fashion and a Netflix documentary be on the cards? We’ll keep an eye out…

‘Scary health battle’

You might think Olympians would be the epitome of good health, but that wasn’t always case for Keely.

Just less than 10 years before bagging gold at the Paris Olympics, she faced a ‘scary’ health scare at the tender age of 13. In what was a massive shock for Keely and her family, she was diagnosed with a benign tumour in her left ear.

It was discovered that the tumour had been growing for 10 years, since the age she was three, and ended up having “crushed through” the bones in her ear and started to press against her spine.

Luckily, surgeons were able to operate on the tumour before it did too much damage – like the threat of her developing facial palsy, which is essentially nerve paralysis.

However, it meant that the Keely now has 95% hearing loss on one side which has been the case since her early teens. Though, she didn’t let this stop her from chasing her dreams – it only spurred her on to go after them even more.

Keely recently opened up about her health scare in a candid interview with Sky Sports, she revealed: “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.

“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.”

‘Tough love life’

Details about Keely’s romantic life are usually kept under wraps, but in an October chat with the Sunday Times, she admitted that she became single in January after a three-year romance.

She admitted that towards the end of the relationship it was “tough”.

Her former flame was also a long-distance runner, with his home turf being overseas in Texas, which ultimately put a strain on their love affair due to the miles apart and clashing timetables.

“Long-distance killed it,” Keely confessed. “He was living in Texas and then Italy, and with my schedule, we could go weeks without seeing each other. It was tough.”

It doesn’t look like Keely is on the hunt for a new beau anytime soon, and not surprised when she’s got a busy schedule and other things to focus on.

She shared: “I’m not really interested in dating right now. I’ve never been on the apps. I like meeting people in real life.”