Keely Nicole Hodgkinson was born on 3 March 2002 and is an English athlete specialising in the 800 metres.
21 Facts About Keely Hodgkinson
2.
Keely Hodgkinson holds world indoor best in the 600 metres.
3.
Keely Hodgkinson was the first junior woman in history to break the two-minute barrier in the indoor event.
4.
Keely Hodgkinson was raised in Atherton near Leigh and Wigan in Greater Manchester; she has three younger siblings.
5.
Keely Hodgkinson attended Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley and Loughborough College.
6.
Keely Hodgkinson joined Leigh Harriers at the age of nine, but initially swam with Howe Bridge Aces before devoting herself fully to running.
7.
Keely Hodgkinson first made an impression aged 10, in 2012.
8.
Keely Hodgkinson's father advised her to run, and she was inspired by British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
9.
From that point, age-group medals kept piling up for Keely Hodgkinson, culminating in her winning at age 16 European U18 and England U20 titles, and European U20 bronze a year later.
10.
Around that period Keely Hodgkinson began to specialise at this distance while still running cross country.
11.
Keely Hodgkinson broke Kirsty Wade's long-standing 1981 British U20 record of 2:02.88, and Anita Hinriksdottir's European U20 mark set in 2015 by 0.4 seconds.
12.
In what was her international outdoor debut at senior level, Keely Hodgkinson lost only to the 2019 world silver medallist, Raevyn Rogers.
13.
Keely Hodgkinson clocked even better lifetime best with 2:01.73, when ending her season in Rovereto, Italy three days later.
14.
Keely Hodgkinson obliterated by exactly two seconds previous best set by Ethiopia's Meskerem Legesse in 2004.
15.
Keely Hodgkinson's record stood for less than a month before being improved by her chief rival and age-mate, USA's Athing Mu, who ran a time of 1:58.40.
16.
At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in August, Keely Hodgkinson won the silver medal, taking almost two seconds off her previous personal best and almost six seconds off her pre-2021 best with a time of one minute 55.88 seconds, behind Athing Mu.
17.
Keely Hodgkinson broke Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21 and the 1978 European U20 best of 1:57.45.
18.
Keely Hodgkinson established the British record, all-comers' record, the fastest ever mark by a teenager, and the sixth-fastest indoor mark all time.
19.
Keely Hodgkinson then continued competition in the Diamond Race, winning in Eugene behind the pond, Oslo, and coming home second behind Kenya's Mary Moraa in Stockholm.
20.
Keely Hodgkinson clashed indoors with Moraa in Torun about two weeks later and then in Lievin, France, with Hodgkinson taking dominant victories, setting a meet record at the former.
21.
Keely Hodgkinson dedicated the win to her first coach in athletics, Joe Galvin, who died a few days earlier.