She won't go anywhere without her Louis Vuitton handbag and wants a Porsche if she wins gold but Team GB's poster girl is just as driven on the track - meet the REAL Keely Hodgkinson

When Jessica Ennis-Hill crossed the line with her arms aloft on Super Saturday, some 200 miles north of the London Stadium was a schoolgirl watching in wonder.

The child glued to her TV back home in Atherton had recently fallen out of love with athletics and had switched her focus to swimming. Yet seeing Ennis-Hill crowned Olympic champion on that magical night at London 2012 changed everything for the 10-year-old – and she knew then she must return to running.

Inspire a generation, they said. Well, sometimes there is substance to a slogan. Because 12 years after 2012, that schoolgirl, Keely Hodgkinson, could be about to become Britain’s first female Olympic champion in athletics since her hero struck gold in Stratford.

‘It’s quite an honour to follow in Jess’ footsteps,’ says the 22-year-old ahead of her 800 metres heats in Paris on Friday. ‘If anyone sees me as the poster girl like she was, then that’s quite the achievement. Hopefully I can go on and do what she did and bring home the gold.’

On Monday week at the Stade de France, Hodgkinson is fully expected to do just that. She won silver at the last Olympics and previous two World Championships. But she arrives here having run the 800m a second faster than any other woman in the world this year.

Now, should things go to plan in Paris in nine days’ time, she will not just become Team GB’s star of the Games, but one of the most recognisable and marketable sportswomen in the country.

So, who is the real Keely? How did she get here? And what does her future hold? Mail Sport spoke to those who know her best – and Hodgkinson herself - to find out.

THE ATHLETE

When Trevor Painter first stumbled across Hodgkinson, he was in for a shock – and it had nothing to do with her running. ‘She was competing for her school and they’d put her in the shot put!’ he recalls about seeing her in Leigh at the age of 14. ‘I was like, “Stick to running”. She stuck in my mind, though.’

A couple of years later, Hodgkinson’s mother Rachel contacted Painter’s wife, the former 800m world medallist Jenny Meadows, who hails from nearby Wigan.

‘She was getting her ducks in a row just in case it took off for Keely,’ Meadows tells Mail Sport. ‘She was asking things like, “Can Keely take paracetamol?”, worrying about anti-doping even then.’

Hodgkinson initially continued to train with Leigh Harriers, under the tutelage of Joe and Margaret Galvin. But at the age of 17, she decided she needed the more modern expertise of Painter and Meadows full time.

‘She made a really brave decision,’ says Meadows. ‘She had just started driving and she drove over to Joe and Margaret’s house to have this difficult conversation. Not many 17-year-olds would be prepared to do that. They’d probably ask a parent or write an email. But she tackles things head on.’

That was in 2019. Such was the immediate impact of her new coaches, two years later Hodgkinson won a stunning silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics aged 19, breaking Kelly Holmes’ British record in the process.

‘I think Keely just used to run, but we developed her into an athlete,’ says Meadows. ‘She is just very, very coachable. It really surprised us how much she improved - and that has been the story of the last five years. We have had to rewrite all of our objectives.

‘She is determined. She is stubborn. She is hard working. She has got all the factors that you need to be a champion. There is something quite remarkable about Keely. I have seen a lot of athletes over the years, and I just think she is a different gravy.’

It has not all been plain sailing for Hodgkinson, however. A recent low came when she finished second to Mary Moraa at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, having gone in as the pre-race favourite.

That, though, merely fuelled the fire for France this summer. ‘I remember coming off the track last year and was like, “I'm not coming second again”,’ says Hodgkinson. ‘I found my proper determination. A lot of this year has been about perseverance because I’ve had a lot of challenges on and off the track.’

One of those came when she suffered a knee ligament injury before Christmas, which ruled her out of running for two months. Then, when she returned at a training camp in South Africa, she was laid low with a virus for 10 days.

‘I could not believe the run into the Olympics was going like this,’ says Meadows. ‘I feel like she has been through some traumas this year and probably a lot of self-doubt, wondering if her luck was going to change.’

Her luck was almost out again in Rome last month, too, when she fell ill on the eve of her final at the European Championships. Hodgkinson’s doctor ordered her to pull out of the race, but she took aspirin and paracetamol and went on to defend her title.

‘The doctor actually did a PowerPoint presentation to us about all the risks,’ reveals Painter. ‘But there's something special about Keely. She’s very strong when she wants to do it. She almost manifests situations and performances. When she believes in herself, she's very, very hard to beat.’

Indeed, no one has beaten her over 800m yet this year. They did not even get close last Saturday at the London Diamond League, when she obliterated her own British record with a time of 1min 54.61sec – the fastest in the world this year and sixth of all time. Now, talk has turned to whether Hodgkinson can one day break Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 41-year-old world record of 1:53.28.

‘If you asked me that 12 months ago, I would have said no,’ admits Meadows. ‘But I think over the next few years, with the shoe technology improving, nutrition improving, Trevor and I being able to tailor training sessions more, yes I think that world record is possible.’

Hodgkinson actually worked with Nike on the development of the new super-shoe she wore in London – the Zoom Victory 2. And she and her team have been given a sneak peek of what’s next.

‘We have seen some prototypes of what's coming up soon and they’re like something from Back to the Future,’ adds Painter. ‘They are a bit weird, but they’ll probably set the word alight when they come out in the next few years.

‘With the shoes developing the way they are, Keely will run 1:53 before she retires. Whether she gets the record, we’ll see - but we'll give it a go. I told her Dad last week, “She’s only going to peak between 27 and 31”.’

THE WOMAN

Painter paints the picture of Team GB’s preparation camp at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. ‘She’s walking around here with Coco Chanel sunglasses and her Louis Vuitton handbag,’ he says. ‘The Team GB people keep saying, “It’s not adidas’ but she’s just like, “I don’t care!”. The handbag goes everywhere with her.’

That is one side of Hodgkinson’s personality – the materialistic fashionista. But there are many more, like the joker. ‘One of her training partners here bought two bars of chocolate and she got one, replaced the chocolate with a load of raisins, and then glued it back together!’ laughs Painter.

‘We’re starting to see the old Keely again – having a laugh and a joke and being playful. She is a lot bubblier, happier and effervescent.’

The ‘old Keely’ Painter refers to went away for a while after Tokyo. Hodgkinson experienced depression as she struggled to come to terms with how her life had changed overnight.

‘When she won that medal, it was like she lost five years of childhood because she got thrust into this other world,’ explains Painter. ‘It’s hard to come to terms with all that at a young age. We see it in football with young kids bursting on the scene. Fergie was really good at protecting Ryan Giggs in the early days and didn’t want him to have much attention.’

Meadows adds: ‘Life should have been exciting, but it was really tough for her. She wasn’t sleeping. She struggled to process the life she had inherited.

‘She allowed herself one night out and everyone was asking her for selfies. She felt very uncomfortable and came home early and was like, “I don’t crave this, I just want to be 19 with my mates”. Her mum was having to go to her apartment to stay the night because she just felt depressed and she couldn’t explain why.’

Hodgkinson slowly worked her way back to her normal self, thanks to her family, coaches and a psychologist, who she still works with today. This year, she started to play the piano as a form of mindfulness. While her life does not allow for much downtime, Meadows tries to schedule it in.

‘If she has an afternoon off, she goes and has a facial or a spa day,’ says Meadows. ‘She loves living on her own in Manchester and going out for nice dinners with friends. It’s really important people know you don’t have to be a robot.’

Hodgkinson is far from that, wearing her heart on her sleeve, on and off the track. She is spunky and can be spiky – just ask Piers Morgan. When the TV personality said that she had ‘lost’ in Tokyo and her silver should not be celebrated, Hodgkinson simply replied ‘Keely*’, a reference to Morgan misspelling her name.

‘She is a breath of fresh air,’ her agent Dale King-Clutterbuck, the co-founder of Forte Talent Group, tells Mail Sport. ‘She is straight talking and really funny. She is a generational talent, she is the best in the world, sixth fastest ever, and she is easier to work with than talent that are nowhere near her level.’

Hodgkinson does, though, have one characteristic that annoys her friends and family – tardiness. ‘Sometimes it’s 20 to 25 minutes late and she just strolls in smiling, “Whatever”,’ says Painter. ‘But if we contain her, put her in a box and tell her she’s got to conform to this, she’ll not be the person we saw run 1:54 in London. That kind of free-spirited nature makes her who she is.’

THE STAR

Hodgkinson was invited to Old Trafford earlier this month and was gifted a Manchester United shirt with the No1 on the back. ‘They know I’m a fan and they gave me a signed shirt from all the players and wished me the best of luck,’ she reveals.

After Paris, her dream is to return and be paraded around the pitch. ‘If I get an Olympic gold they might have me back,’ she says with a smile. ‘That might just be enough.’

Hodgkinson, who can see Old Trafford from her Salford apartment, has another United connection in former school-mate Ella Toone, who won the Euros with the Lionesses. Last year, she revealed her frustration at track and field athletes not receiving the same recognition as women’s footballers.

Since then, though, she has signed with Forte – who have sports and fashion divisions - and appeared on cover shoots for Vogue and Elle. ‘It’s been really fun,’ says Hodgkinson. ‘I’ve enjoyed being in a different space. I’ve always loved to explore the opportunities track brings me away from the track. It’s just good to see athletics in that limelight, in a different field, and it looks great.’

Hodgkinson’s sponsors Nike moved her up to one of their leading tiers this year. She also has a partnership with luxury watch brand Omega, and Maurten, who make energy drinks and gels, and has just signed a deal with Rimmel London.

‘That deal is the first of its kind,’ says King-Clutterbuck. ‘We got Rimmel to do her makeup at the Diamond League last week because when girls do their makeup before races, it is quite high stress for them. 

'They are on TV and want to look good, but if they are not quite comfortable with how they look, it could affect performance.’

One of Hodgkinson’s sporting heroes is Michael Jordan. Much like the basketball legend’s Air Jordan, the British athlete is working on her own brand, using a tornado. The emoji is on her Instagram bio and her dad has had it printed on 150 T-shirts for friends and family to wear in Paris and back home.

Nike have also already made pin badges featuring a tornado. If Hodgkinson wins gold, though, it will be a whirlwind.

‘We need to keep making her more credible outside of sport and then you are going to be able to look at those big French or Italian fashion houses that are going to prove Keely is really cool,’ says King-Clutterbuck. ‘We are already talking to some of the biggest brands in fashion who have already shown an interest in Keely. But the colour of the medal really will determine that.’

King-Clutterbuck, a former British middle-distance runner himself, warns that ‘the moment that performance stops, no one wants you’. Meadows, though, has no fears that Hodgkinson will lose focus because of fame.

‘She is very humble,’ adds Meadows. ‘I remember Nike having a conversation with us in April, they were coming up with this whole brand plan for her, and she thanked them several times, almost like apologetically. I love that about her.

‘Keely likes the fashion shoots and the opportunities that her success brings her. But she is not someone who needs to see herself on the front cover of a magazine. She would rather win medals and get good times. Performance comes first.

‘She is not going to go off and do Dancing on Ice or I’m a Celebrity. She is like, “That is for when you retire, I am not going to get side-tracked, I have got big ambitions, I want my times to be up there in history”.’

Above all, Hodgkinson wants gold – and to celebrate, as she told Mail Sport earlier this week, by buying a beige Porsche. Should she become the Olympic champion, Porsche may well be giving the superstar a supercar for free.