She was described in this month’s Vogue as the new ‘It girl’ of athletics. Lord Coe this week called her ‘outstanding, the real deal’. And yet, if you uttered the name Keely Hodgkinson to most of the nation, they would probably reply: ‘Keely who?’
The 21-year-old is already an Olympic and world silver medallist. She is arguably Britain’s best bet for an individual gold medal at this year’s World Championships, arriving in Budapest as the top-ranked 800metres runner. But Hodgkinson is a superstar hiding in plain sight.
When she returned home from her latest global success last summer, she went unrecognised as she waited by the baggage carousel at Manchester Airport.
On social media, Hodgkinson has just 18.6k followers on Twitter and 147k on Instagram. In contrast, her Fred Longworth High schoolmate, Ella Toone, boasts respective numbers of 134k and 561k.
A huge banner of England’s World Cup semi-final goalscorer is currently draped down the side of Hotel Football next to Old Trafford. As for Hodgkinson, the Lioness of the track, she does not even get stopped for selfies when she goes to games as a Manchester United fan.
Keely Hodgkinson is the British athletics superstar who is currently hiding in plain sight
Hodgkinson has been called ‘outstanding, the real deal’ by World Athletics president Lord Coe
She featured in this month’s Vogue amid her love for fashion, described as ‘leader of the pack’
The childhood friends could both be world champions within a week of each other. But there is a world of difference when it comes to their public profiles, owing as much to the fall in popularity of athletics as the rise of women’s football, something Hodgkinson herself accepts.
‘It’s amazing to watch in one year how much the women’s football has come on and how many have been watching the World Cup,’ says Hodgkinson.
‘But when you look back to the old days and how athletics was then, the 100m men and women, it has changed. I’m sure after 2012, Jessica Ennis probably couldn’t go many places without being recognised, so it’s definitely changed.
‘I do think us athletes work a lot harder than some other sports and we don’t get the recognition we deserve. I don’t know how, but hopefully we will get there.
‘Training for these events, it’s tough. Footballers think they’re fit, they’re just not. Because if you brought them down to the track, they wouldn’t keep up. Tennis players work really hard. But I just think all the different aspects you have in athletics, I don’t think people realise what goes into it.’
Dedication, talent, charisma, Hodgkinson is the full package and should be one of Britain’s most marketable sportswomen.
As it is, she thinks it will take her turning her world and Olympic silvers to golds before she is lighting up the red carpet like she does the red track.
‘That’s a personal goal of mine anyway,’ says Hodgkinson. ‘So that would just be quite fulfilling if I did that. And I guess what comes with that, you can build on something else that you want to do and hopefully bring some more light in.’
That said, she does not necessarily mind being in the shade sometimes.
Hodgkinson still only has three major sponsors – Nike, watch brand Omega and Maurten, who make energy drinks and gels. British tennis star Emma Raducanu, meanwhile, has at least eight commercial partners, including the likes of luxury brands Porsche, Tiffany and Dior.
Hodgkinson, despite her successes, has often gone about her daily life unrecognised by many
But Hodgkinson admits: ‘I do quite like going to training, then going home to recover and not having anything to disturb me.
‘There are brands that do approach me, but I’m quite protective of who I work with, and what I do, because essentially, I just want to grow into the role of becoming a professional athlete.
‘If you’ve got six, seven, eight different brands asking for that your time is going to be taken up quite a bit – and my main priority is training.’
It is an attitude which should be applauded, but that is not to say Hodgkinson does not know how to have fun outside of training. For the Wigan woman enjoys a party as much as the next 21-year-old, which is another aspect of her appeal.
After winning gold at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul in March, she flew straight to Dubai for a girls’ holiday to mark her 21st. Following her shock Olympic silver in Tokyo two years ago, she celebrated with a track day in an Aston Martin and bar crawls in Greece.
One of her favourite haunts – and one of the few places she says she has been recognised – is Albert’s Schloss, a Bavarian beer cellar in Manchester.
‘If you put your career as everything you are then you’ll end up in a very sad place when things aren’t going right, so I don’t want that to happen,’ she tells Mail Sport.
Hodgkinson is looking to beat nemesis Athing Mu (left) in Hungary, the woman who beat her last year and at the Olympics
Hodgkinson also speaks of a burgeoning interest in fashion, which is why her recent photo shoot for Vogue was such a thrill, even if she was not entirely comfortable with the ‘It girl’ description.
‘For me, it was just something fun to do away from athletics,’ she says. ‘It was a nice thing to do away from being sweaty and in sweats all the time.’
For the next few days, though, it is back in those sweats and back down to business.
Hodgkinson heads to Hungary in the form of her life, having broken her own British 800m record with a run of 1min 55.77sec in Paris last month.
What should really worry her rivals, however, is her ‘burning desire’ to avenge her near miss last year in Eugene, where she lost to her American nemesis Athing Mu – the same woman who beat her at the Olympics – by just 0.08sec.
‘I know you should be grateful to be on the podium because some people work their whole life for one,’ says Hodgkinson.
‘I just think if you knock on the door to be a world champion and you miss out by that little it hurts.’
Mary Moraa (middle) is also a rival, having won at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham
More hurt came less than a fortnight later at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, when she was surprisingly beaten by Kenyan Mary Moraa. And while Hodgkinson did go on to break her outdoor duck with gold at the Europeans in Munich later that August, in her head, at least, there was an asterisk.
‘The Europeans were great, it was so nice to finally get a senior major gold medal,’ she says. ‘But my two biggest rivals (Mu and Moraa) weren’t there. If I am going to get that major title, I want to beat someone to it who beat me before.’
Whether Hodgkinson gets the chance to beat one of her biggest rivals in Budapest, though, remains to be seen.
Mu’s coach claimed earlier this month that the Olympic and world champion could skip her title defence to save herself for Paris 2024. And while Mu has travelled to Budapest, she is yet to confirm whether she will participate in Wednesday’s heats.
If she were to be missing, Hodgkinson would undoubtedly have a clearer path to her first global glory. But she insists: ‘It’d be disappointing if she’s not there. It would definitely be a shame.
‘If I’m honest, if I won a title and she didn’t run I probably still wouldn’t be happy because I hadn’t beaten her.’
Hodgkinson did win gold at the European Championships, but Mu and Moraa didn’t race
It is strong stuff. And manna from heaven for an ailing sport that cries out for rivalries. For track and field, it is a gift that Mu and Hodgkinson, both 21, and Kenyan Moraa, 23, have created this three-way tussle at the top – and it is driving them all on to greater heights.
‘I don’t think I’m at my limit yet,’ adds Hodgkinson. ‘I think year on year we’re all surprising ourselves, and that probably goes for Athing and Mary as well. We all get better by just pushing new limits.
‘I do think 1:54 is possible and maybe even beyond that, I don’t know. But for those things to happen all the stars have to be aligned.’
On the eve of the World Championships, and a year shy of the Paris Olympics, there is no brighter star in British athletics than Keely Hodgkinson. It might just take a little longer for the nation to notice.
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