Keely Hodgkinson was already a world-class athlete long before that sticky August evening at the Stade de France where she stormed to Olympic glory. And yet, the fact that even an elite 800m runner can have his life changed by winning that first Olympic title is a mark of the unique power of the Games. Gold came with more recognition, more opportunities, more strange encounters in ordinary life.
“I was painting pottery in a little cafe in Sale, it was random,” she says, reflecting on some of the strangest moments of her post-Paris era. “A woman came in and said to me, ‘Are you the runner?'”
A more glamorous encounter came when she was flown to Milan Fashion Week in September, courtesy of Armani. “The trip was absolutely incredible,” she beams. “They flew me out and I sat in the front row at the fashion show. We had a lot of dinners, I got to meet him, Giorgio Armani… He came up to me and he put his hand on my cheek and called me “Bella”, which I thought was very nice. He doesn’t speak English but he is passionate about his sport. It was just kind of funny because he’s just a powerful little man. He’s a lot older now, 90, but he looks great.
“Going to Milan, meeting Giorgio Armani, going to the shows, working with some brands, it’s been really fun. And I think those opportunities came from that kind of success.
This is the difference between gold and silver. At the Tokyo Olympics three years earlier, Hodgkinson had finished a few steps behind compatriot Athing Mu, 19, and it seemed then that their two careers would be permanently linked, one story not being able to be fully told without the other. Mu, an American sensation, would surely be his greatest enemy and perhaps ultimately his obstacle to gold.
And while Mu’s level has motivated Hodgkinson to seek constant improvement, devoting herself to a career she stumbled upon thanks to her astonishing natural athleticism, Mu literally tripped during Olympic qualifying earlier this year, falling and losing her place on the American team.
Hodgkinson had already risen to the status of favorite before Paris, but Mu’s absence intensified the attention. She still had to deliver on the Olympic blue track against a field including world champion Mary Moraa and world indoor champion Tsige Duguma, and she did so emphatically, controlling a fast race without tiring out, timing the effort of his adrenaline-filled body to perfection.
So, four months later, Hodgkinson is the favorite to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Spoty). “It’s a big recognition,” she says of being on the shortlist of six athletes, although she seems more excited about her coach, Trevor Painter, a potential coach of the year.
“It would be even better than winning it, to be honest. I think he deserves it so much. I’m not sure of any other coach this year who has put as much emphasis on it as he has, winning three Olympic medals within our training group (Georgia Bell and Lewis Davey won bronze medals in Paris). He just creates such a fun environment for all of us that makes us want to keep coming and working hard. He has a very good work ethic and he believes in all of us. This is what helped us accomplish so much on the track.
Hodgkinson and Painter are taking a break from their altitude training in South Africa to fit Spoty into their schedule and will attend the ceremony in Salford on Tuesday evening. The BBC Prize has retained a prestigious role in the British sporting landscape, although it is difficult to pin down exactly what this role is. Why, for example, are Hodgkinson’s achievements greater than those of other British gold medalists in Paris, such as Tom Pidcock, who defended his mountain bike title in the most dramatic fashion?
Hodgkinson herself said triathlete Alex Yee would get her vote, while admitting she didn’t know much about Luke Littler, her closest rival in the public vote according to the bookmakers. “I don’t really watch darts, I’ll be honest, so I’m not sure in his world what’s the most important thing to achieve or anything like that. But he seems to have a lot of followers, fans and a lot of people who support him. I wish him all the best.
This explains why she is such a popular winner, beyond her thrilling dominance on the track. Her admission that she knows nothing about Littler demonstrates an affable frankness. This manifested itself in the way she reacted after winning a first Olympic medal in Tokyo at the age of 19, live on television, with: “What the hell?!”
It helps, of course, that athletics is the most popular Olympic sport in Britain and significantly more common than mountain biking or triathlon. Usually, athletics is locked in a perpetual struggle for attention outside of its quadrennial participation in the Games, with low interest and participation comparable to martial arts and bowling, according to a survey by YouGov. But it comes alive in the public imagination during those two weeks when the Olympic flame is lit, which partly explains why track and field stars account for double the number of Spoty winners (18) as the second sport. most successful, the F1 (eight).
Yet in Hodgkinson’s case, she is even more than just another gold medalist. It’s worth noting that the ‘personality’ element of the Spoty Award is just a piece of archaic BBC language, but it is undoubtedly a ‘personality competition’ element when voting for the audience, and Hodgkinson is easy to like.
Her profile has blossomed beyond athletics, entering the world of fashion, a strategic move that led her to join hybrid fashion-sport agency FORTE a few years ago, and it’s a mark of her broad appeal that “the one” she wears is someone else. part of the night. “You’ll see,” she replies secretly. Such is his transcendence that we may see and hear more about Hodgkinson over the next few years than we do about the sport of athletics.
This is underlined by the way she passed up the opportunity to sign up for Michael Johnson’s new Grand Slam Track event, which had worked hard to attract her. Starting next year, the track-only competition (Johnson has avoided field events as a business decision) will feature four meets in the United States and Jamaica and has recruited most of the big stars to fully commit. But Hodgkinson is only planning one appearance, as she prioritizes the World Championships above all else.
“I would like to do one of the competitions, but I haven’t signed up to do them all,” she says. “I think it’s great what he’s doing, but I don’t feel like it’s for me next year. And I guess then we’ll see where the league goes. She can afford to wait and see if it’s worth pursuing.
With that trademark confidence, there’s an authenticity that comes through whenever she speaks, whether she wins or loses. And perhaps that gets to the essence of her popularity, why she is the favorite to join the greats and good of British sport at Tuesday night’s awards ceremony beyond sporting excellence. She looks like an ordinary young woman who has discovered an extraordinary talent, and she runs with it.
All his hard work and focus is focused on returning to Tokyo, the scene of his Olympic silver medal, in September in the best possible shape to attempt to win world gold. “I haven’t won a world title yet,” she said. And in that last word, she sums up an elite mentality.