If you follow track and field, it’s impossible to take your eyes off Keely Hodgkinson. The 23-year-old British 800m star has dazzled the world, clinching Olympic gold in Paris with a breathtaking 1:56.72. Rising to prominence with a silver at Tokyo 2020 at just 19, breaking Kelly Holmes’ British record, Hodgkinson has since been unstoppable, earning BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 and medaling at every major championship. With silvers at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and golds at the 2022 and 2024 European Championships, she has seemingly conquered it all, yet, shockingly, she has never run a full 800m in training.

Yes, you read that right, Keely Hodgkinson is arguably the best 800m runner in the world right now, yet she has never actually run 800m in training. In a conversation with HigherPerformance, she was asked if 800m runs are part of her training. “Nope,” she revealed with a laugh. “I run over 800, so I’ll do like 1k reps. We’ll do long minute reps, like 8-minute reps, 4-minute reps.”

She further added, “We do track work, gym work, so we have a real mix of everything. But in terms of the 800, I never run 800 meters on a track ever in training, no. The furthest I’ll do is 600. Trevor just likes to keep it in the mindset that the track is fast; you associate the track with being fast, so all my sessions on there are either kilolactic or speed work.” It must be noted that this year proved to be one of the toughest in the athlete’s career, as consecutive injuries stalled her momentum.

A hamstring tear in February, suffered during her final prep session for the Keely Klassic, a Birmingham meet she founded, cut her indoor season short and forced her to abandon a planned 800m indoor world record attempt. Another setback in June delayed her outdoor debut, but she has now returned to full training, stronger and more determined than ever.

She further explained that the most challenging part of the training, which nearly made her sick, was the 3×500, “One of the worst ones we have would be 3x500s off 7 minutes. When I first saw the session, I was like, ‘Oh, 3x500s, that’s like nothing.’ I didn’t get off the track for half an hour. I could not move. I felt horrible. If I looked up, my eyes were seeing black spots everywhere, my head was banging, and I was going to be sick.” 

If you feel nauseous during training, you’re probably doing something right, pushing yourself to the limit, a principle Hodgkinson’s coach, Trevor Painter, swears by. This intense regimen has fueled her remarkable success, though it hasn’t stopped critics from weighing in.

Keely Hodgkinson talks about her critics

Despite this season being plagued by injuries, Hodgkinson participated in the 800m race, securing bronze in the Tokyo World Athletics Championships. Hodgkinson refused to let disappointment steal her joy. Instead of brooding over missed opportunities, she headed straight to a bustling karaoke bar with family and friends, turning the night into a celebration of resilience, laughter, and music. Critics online claimed she was “wasting time,” but she didn’t flinch; her focus was simple: she would not care.

“As much as I was disappointed, I wanted to cry and I was upset, I was also like ‘well, it’s done now, I can go and have a good time with my friends and family and with G (her training partner Georgie Hunter Bell) and with Trev (her coach Trevor Painter) and celebrate the fact that we made it through this terrible year. I think it’s really important that I went through it,” said Hodgkinson, as per Mirror UK. Many online trolls even took it too far as to criticize her media appearances, endorsement deals, and even the simple joy of spending time with her friends.

But, Hodgkinson’s mindset and self-belief is unshakeable. “There was this bunch of comments like ‘you should be embarrassed’, ‘what a let down of a show,’” she revealed. “And that’s obviously not nice – ‘oh, she’s too busy making TikTok videos’. There are so many hours to kill when you’re out there doing nothing. I’m like, ‘I’m going to do whatever I want’. I took one day to be sad about it, and then I didn’t think about it again.” 

After claiming bronze at the Tokyo World Championships, the 23-year-old returned to Alexis Ohanian’s Athlos to seize both the gold and the Tiara. Keely Hodgkinson is just getting started, and her competitors should be wary.