When asked about the race that told her she belonged with the world’s best half-milers, Keely Hodgkinson thinks back to her 2021 victory at the British Championships. She was 19 years old, a self-proclaimed underdog, and facing some of her home nation’s top distance runners, many whose careers she’d watched with admiration as an amateur athlete. Now 23, the Nike athlete has reached that same national-hero status. She currently holds the world’s leading 800-meter time of 1:54.74, in spite of a year of injuries, and is a leading candidate for a gold medal in Tokyo.
Keely keeps good company back home. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more competitive nation in the women’s 800-meter than the UK. In 2024, of the top five 800-meter women’s times, UK runners held three of them — all from the same race at London’s Olympic Stadium in July, when Keely set the British record. That Mancunian pride is a source of inspiration that Keely holds close, down to her choice of training club, M11. Based in Manchester, it's the newest locale under the Nike Swoosh TC umbrella, whose members include the likes of Georgia Hunter Bell, Sarah Healy and Erin Wallace. As Keely shares below, there’s power in rediscovering your strength from the places that shaped you.
Growing up in a small town can give you important opportunities if you have the talent and the work ethic. I grew up in a very small community outside of Manchester. For me, it was a true place to grow up. I had such great support at my school. People saw something in me, and they encouraged me to run cross-country, where I first found a love of the sport. I don’t know if anyone thought I would eventually take the world stage, but when you’re a young kid and you’re seen by members of a small community, you’re given the opportunities to find a passion you might not otherwise find yourself.
When I think of who I’m representing as a runner, I first think of my hometown. I’m quite proud to be from Manchester. We’re one of the greatest cities in the world. And when it comes to sport, we really are incredible. We have two of the biggest football clubs in the world in one city. We have all kinds of high-performing athletes who are from Manchester. I love what the city has taught me. One of our mottos from M11 is that we’re as busy as bees, which speaks to our city’s work ethic.
“I’m quite proud to be from Manchester. We’re one of the greatest cities in the world.“
Keely Hodgkinson, Nike athlete, 800m gold medalist
Literal first-place wins are great, but you have to keep track of the small, behind-the-scenes wins that nobody else sees. When I think back to last year, I had a few different goals: win the World Indoor Championships, win the European Championships, and staying undefeated. None of them happened because I kept getting hurt from my hamstring injury. All of a sudden, I had to shift to smaller goals. Let’s put the spikes on. Let’s start running. Let’s run at 1500m pace. Now 800m pace. Those were some crazy-small wins that meant a lot to me. It wasn’t where I wanted to be, but sometimes you have to take a step back and take the small wins to get to the big ones.
Your coaches can be a voice of reason when you encounter setbacks. I had many moments of frustration this year from the injuries. Coach Trevor [Painter] and Coach Jenny [Meadows] are amazing for a lot of reasons, one of them being how supportive they were of me. We have the kind of trusting relationship where we can have honest conversations. It was a struggle this year to figure out what was going on with the injuries, especially coming after a gold-medal year in Paris, but they 100 percent believed in me. Neither of them panic. I’m like, in some respects, surely we should be panicking now? But they have full belief in my capabilities, my talent and my drive. They know that if I put in the work, there’s nothing to worry about.
Our teammate dynamic within M11 is so solid. We all get on really well, we support each other, we have loads of ambition, and we compete to get the best out of each other. Recovering from injury, it’s been great having teammates like Georgia as a benchmark — she’s been killing it on the track. We all work off each other’s strengths and weaknesses across different practice sessions. We’ve had some of the boys join our team this year, and I think they’re drafting off us girls who’ve had a lot of experience and who’ve performed on the world stage. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to take the track with, day in and day out.
“Our teammate dynamic within M11 is so solid. We all get on really well, we support each other, we have loads of ambition, and we compete to get the best out of each other.”
Keely Hodgkinson, Nike athlete, 800m gold medalist
Some races have the makings of special times. That 2024 race in London where I set the national record was one of them. Olympic Stadium is this dream venue to compete in. Every competitor, whether you’re British or not, loves that crowd, because they know they’ll draw from the energy and the atmosphere as they burn down the home stretch. I knew I was in amazing shape. This was the opportunity to really go for it in front of a home crowd. We did the British 1-2-3. Georgia ran an amazing race, and Erin helped us get there as our pacer. It’s a race I look back on with a lot of pride, both personally and nationally.
There were times I didn’t even think I would be here to compete for a medal at Worlds. It’s been a real struggle. Even if I got back onto the track, I didn’t think I’d have enough time to prepare. That’s why I’m so thankful for the journey. It would be really meaningful to get a win in the same Tokyo stadium where my career took off four years ago. To still be fighting for those medals four years later is crazy to think about. It goes to show what a great team we have back home.