Keely Hodgkinson is the queen of the track at Paris 2024 – but whatever you do, don’t call her princess.
The 22-year-old from Greater Manchester is the new megastar of British athletics after blowing away her opponents over half a mile in a packed Stade de France last night.
Her Paris gold is the fulfilment of a dream after she confided in friends and family after her silver medal at Tokyo 2020 that she wanted to become a ‘legend of this sport’.
Last night she posed with a gold crown on the track, but Keely is no princess. In fact, she is revolted by the term.
When someone suggested this as a suitable moniker for her on social media while commenting on her perfect blonde hair, white teeth and pristine painted nails during competition, she replied: ‘I’d rather clap with sh*t in my hands’.
Away from the track she is known as the Usain Bolt-loving Manchester United fan who is into nightclubs, drawing, piercings and watching Netflix crime dcumentaries. She is, also, according her coach as ‘nutty as a fruitcake’, and said today that she will get some sleep after just 90 minutes last night and then will stop running for a while to take her family on holiday where she will lounge on a beach drinking rosé.
But to get to the top of her sport she has had to overcome many hurdles, including a tumour that left her deaf in one ear and unable to run at all. ‘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 [the tumour] and I’m just left with missing hearing. It’s not too bad’.
Keely Hodgkinson delivered on her status as pre-race favourite to win Olympic 800m gold
Hodgkinson ended her wait for a global title by storming to victory at the Stade de France
Keely celebrates winning the Women’s 800m Final with her emotional father Dean, at the Stade de France
Hodgkinson is now one of Team GB’s greatest athletes at 22, reaching the pinnacle of her sport
Keely (pictured) now has 500,000 loyal Instagram followers who follow her adventures
Despite her significant highs and successes on the track, it hasn’t always been plane sailing for Hodgkinson (pictured during childhood). She is deaf in one ear after a tumour left her unable to run due to balanced issues
Keely Hodgkinson is pictured with her former school-mate and close friend, England footballer Ella Toone (right)
Ironically, despite being the fastest woman in the world over 800 metres, Keely, described as ‘nutty as a fruitcake’ by her coach, is a habitually late.
In fact she almost missed her medal ceremony in Tokyo because she went to the loo and lost track of time.
Keely is the face of Nike in the UK
There was also a bout of depression as she coped with fame, and until last night, the pressure of being a potential Olympic gold medallist.
Today the face of Nike in the UK, who is also sponsored by watch brand Omega, is set to become a multi-millionaire overnight with many more lucrative deals set to roll in after she won the first athletics Olympic gold for a British woman since Jessica Ennis-Hill at London 2012.
Mark Borkowski, Britain’s leading PR gurus, told MailOnline: ‘She has the world at her feet. A winner at such a young age she will become the UK sports poster girl. Not only has she a future on the track but she can turn her post career fame into something really special. I expect every brand to be forming a line which will run the length of the country’.
But he warned: ‘Fame can be a double-edged sword. Usually, when the spotlight shifts from their achievements to their personal lives. The relentless scrutiny can lead to missteps, scandals, or simply a waning interest as the public tires of ubiquity. Golden girl Paula Radcliffe faced backlash over her performance-related controversies
‘These brand icons walk a tightrope between maintaining their polished image and the inevitable fall from grace when the public’s short attention span looks for the next shiny object’.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede told MailOnline: ‘Keely Hodgkinson is great Britain’s new sporting superstar and she’s going to become a poster girl in the uk and beyond.
‘She is full of fun and totally grounded with a huge personality and glamorous looks. I can see her getting lots of deals from brands looking for a wholesome, aspirational star.
‘She has over half a million followers on Instagram and this is rising by the hour as she gets more and more fans from her Olympic glory.
‘From modelling contracts to brand deals the world is her oyster.
‘Sports and ath-leisure brands will be wanting to lock her into big deals and I can see Jewellery and fashion brands wanting to cash in on the 22 year olds appeal.
‘Whether she’ll be signed up for tv shows following in Mo Farah’s footsteps and do I’m a Celeb, I think it’s too early in her career for that, but as a role model she’s in the perfect position to make millions’.
Keely was on TV this morning and admitted: ‘I’ve had about 90 minutes sleep – I’m absolutely knackered’
Keely is now one of Britain’s biggest sports stars and predicted to make millions
Best friends Joanna Smith, Eve Williams and Keely Hodgkinson, aged 11, (left to right) after a cross country run with Leigh Harriers
Keely Hodgkinson is congratulated by her parents Rachel Hodgkinson and Dean Hodgkinson after claiming silver in the women’s 800m final on day nine of the Commonwealth Games at Alexander Stadium on August 6, 2022 in Birmingham, England
Keely Hodgkinson alongside grandmother Carol Hodgkinson, grandfather Joe Hodgkinson, father Dean Hodgkinson and sister Tilly Hodgkinson during a family gathering on May 6, 2024 in Atherton, England
Friends admit Keely has an edge that has helped take her to Olympic gold – an extraordinary journey for the 22-year-old from Wigan, who went to school with Lionesses’ star Ella Toone, who remains a close friend who cheered her on from home last night.
While Ella excelled in football, Keely was Fred Longworth High School’s star of the swimming pool and track before she plumped for athletics as her sport of choice – winning in every age group from the age of nine.
As well as being the world’s best middle-distance runner, Keely is a criminology graduate from Leeds Beckett University, where she also trained.
Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson celebrated her gold medal victory with a night out in Paris most notorious quarter, also home to the French capital’s red light district.
The 22-year-old 800m runner took a taxi straight from the Stade de France race-track to a bar in Pigale district that is home to the famous Moulin Rouge night club.
Dressed in TeamGB leggings and top, the athlete met up with about two dozen of her friends and family at the French Flair bar to toast her epic victory. They drank beer, danced to music and talked through her epic Paris 2024 win .
Keely has said that she is not massively keen on drinking – although she does love to party with her friends.
After her success at Tokyo she took a complete break from running and went to Greece with her closest friends – and even admitted she went ‘off the rails’ for a period
‘Me and my friends went to Greece and hung around bars. No running at all. My friends were saying I’d won an Olympic medal to get free drinks, but I’m not like that. I don’t really like drinking and like to know what I’m doing, but you do it because you can’t all year’.
The Wigan world silver medallist was the heavy favourite heading not just into Monday night’s final but well ahead of these Games, setting a world-leading time of 1:54.61 just over two weeks before what had increasingly started to feel like a dance with destiny.
On a clear Monday evening in Paris she was calm and collected, moving up from fifth to first entering the final lap and cruised across the line in 1:56.72.
Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma surged to silver in 1:57.15, while Kenya’s world champion Mary Moraa collected bronze.
Three summers ago in Tokyo, a then 19-year-old Hodgkinson stormed to a surprise silver, breaking a British record set by Dame Kelly Holmes for 26 years.
A new Olympic champion was always guaranteed after Hodgkinson’s biggest rival, American Athing Mu, fell in the United States trials and did not qualify.
Since Tokyo Hodgkinson had finished been runner-up at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and back-to-back World Championships, but claimed two European tiles.
The silver streak came to an end on Monday, when the Manchester United fan became the first British woman to win an Olympic 800m title since Holmes reached the top of the podium in Athens 24 years ago – nearly two years before Hodgkinson, now 22, was even born.
Keely’s tears as she realises her dream of Olympic champion
Gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson celebrated with a crown
Keely Hodgkinson hit the town after claiming her gold medal at the Olympics – Britain’s first in athletics at this Games
Keely Hodgkinson and trainer Trevor Painter (in glasses) greets a member of her entourage in central Paris
Despite her significant highs and successes on the track, it hasn’t always been plain sailing for Hodgkinson, with the athlete heartbreakingly having to face a tumour battle during her teen years which left her partially deaf in one ear.
The tumour was non-cancerous, but it still proved to be an extremely tough and emotional experience for Hodgkinson, who was 13 at the time, to deal with.
Speaking to Sky Sports earlier this year, Hodgkinson said: ‘I had a mastoidectomy. It wasn’t majorly life-threatening, (but it) had been growing for ten 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.’
The mastoidectomy impacted Hodgkinson’s running hopes too, as she was forced to limit her training in 2015, which meant her form at youth level took a slight dip.
She later explained how her recovery was ‘quite a weird experience’, before eventually returning to full fitness.
‘I couldn’t walk,’ she added. ‘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.’
The British star has now completed an inspirational journey by getting her hands on a prized gold medal.
Today she admitted she had only had 90 minutes sleep last night.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning she said: “It was incredible and it felt amazing.
“I remember thinking ‘nothing is guaranteed till you have crossed the line in first place’, for so many silvers in the last couple of years I am super happy to have upgraded to a gold.”
“There was so much pressure and I have been a contender for a gold medal, but for people to write me down as a favourite is a privileged position but it can be quite scary’.
She is now planning a break with her parents and siblings.
‘I haven’t been on a family holiday since 2019. I am going to join them later today and I’ll be on the beach having a nice glass of rose wine’, she said.
‘Family is everything to me. Even my siblings have had to make sacrifices when my parents have taken me to training – they have had to suffer the consequences of that’
Keely was ecstatic when she jumped into the locally-hired Uber taxi from the race venue to the centre of Paris.
The taxi driver Willy told MailOnline: ‘The British gold medal winner Keely Hodgkinson was in my taxi.
‘She was so excited to have won the race and she wanted to meet up with her friends.
‘I took her a bar in Pigale, in the centre of Paris. She was very happy and was smiling and doing thumbs up.’
She met friends at the Flare bar in Paris’ Pigale district, which is home to the Moulin Rouge
Keely poses with fans for a picture after picking up her gold medal in the women’s 800m
A friend said Keely was ‘clearly having a great time’ celebrating her victory earlier in the evening
Keely reacts seconds after crossing the finish line at the Stade de France on Monday night in first place
Keely was greeted at the pub by some two dozens of members of her fan club who wore specially created white t-shirts with the words ‘Team Keely 24’.
In words underneath it stated: ‘Where we go one, we go all.’
Other members of her entourage had union flags wrapped around themselves as they hailed Keely’s victory while standing on the bar’s street terrace.
The athlete spent some two hours at the bar, close to the Place de Clichy, smiling and chatting with friends.
Her dad Dean and her coach Trevor Painter were never far from her side as she enjoyed the attention.
Keely gave Britain its first athletics gold medal of Paris 2024 as she won the women’s 800m final as her adoring father watched on.
She had admitted that she would not sleep last night following her victory, at a post-race press conference.
She added: ‘Nobody can take that medal away from me.’
But when the bar closed shortly after 2am and members of her entourage went looking for another place to party the dedicated athlete took a taxi back to her accommodation with her dad.
An onlooker said: ‘Keely was clearly having a great time. She was laughing and joking with her friends and celebrating her victory.
‘I didn’t see her with a drink in her hand but she was certainly having a good time. She was buzzing on the all the excitement.’