Keely Hodgkinson’s behaviour on her birthday night out spoke volumes according to a sporting legend who came across the partying Team GB golden girl
World Athletics president and Team GB legend Seb Coe has hailed Keely Hodgkinson as the most authentic person he knows, sharing the story of when he encountered the 800m star while she was out marking her birthday.
Hodgkinson has swiftly become the poster girl for British athletics at merely 24-years-old. She secured her first Olympic gold in dominant fashion at Paris 2024 and smashed the women’s world indoor 800m record in February. Her personal best was achieved at the London Diamond League in 2024, recording 1:54.61.
She claimed her first world indoor crown in Torun in March, further solidifying an extraordinary period of triumph that also encompasses the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year accolade and the MBE she was awarded last year for her contributions to athletics.
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Hodgkinson continues to captivate the public with her refreshingly down-to-earth character, and fellow Olympic champion Coe was brimming with praise for the Greater Manchester-born track sensation.
Coe, who captured 1500m gold at both the 1980 and 1984 Games before orchestrating London 2012, featured on the UNTAPPED podcast and was questioned about Hodgkinson. He said: “What I love about Keely is she is probably the most, forget athletics, she’s probably the most authentic person I currently know.
“What you see with Keely is what you get. She is very funny, she’s totally driven, but she puts things in perspective. I was up in Manchester not that long ago and I bumped into her one night going into a restaurant.
“I was on my way out. I’d sort of done the early shift and she turned up and it was her birthday. It was a couple of weeks… I mean she’d only just broken the indoor world record.
“She was only literally a few days away from destroying the field and winning her world indoor title and she was just out celebrating her birthday. She’s just completely normal, but she is incredibly well talented. She’s got a great coaching team around her.
“I’m probably going to lose whatever fan base I’ve got left in the south of England, but she’s absolutely rooted to the north of England and that for me counts for a lot in life.”
Hodgkinson has been testing herself over shorter distances and is poised to launch her 2026 outdoor season at the Rome Diamond League in June. Nevertheless, her coach Jenny Meadows has admitted that toppling the longest-standing record in athletics remains a long-term goal.
Jarmila Kratochvilova’s women’s outdoor 800m world record time of 1:53.28 has stood untouched since July 1983, with Hodgkinson’s personal best currently at 1:54.61. Meadows told Athletics Weekly: “I think we’re just desperate to see that 1:53 first before we try and go down to the 1:53.28.
“Because she has those months now of consistent training this winter, she’s hitting outdoor times indoors, and it just makes me really excited. I think she will be running those 1:53s that she’s so desperate to run.
“Whether it’s 1:53.28, we’ll see, but it was in London in 2024 that she saw 1:54 on the clock for the first time and now she’s really looking forward to that moment when she sees 1:53 on the clock.”