Keely Hodgkinson has taken the rough with the smooth both before and after winning gold at the 2024 Olympics. The Team GB superstar jokingly branded team-mate and training partner Georgia Hunter Bell a "b***h" when reflecting on a run-in between the pair. Hodgkinson's compatriot narrowly beat her to silver at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, but the pair have since been able to laugh about it.
Olympic Glory and World Championship Defeat
Hodgkinson claimed Olympic silver over 800 metres in Tokyo before improving in Paris in 2024, securing her first gold medal at the games and Team GB's first Olympic gold over the distance since Kelly Holmes won in 2004. The reigning Olympic champ returned to Tokyo for the 2025 Worlds but lost out again, with Lilian Odira claiming gold and Hunter Bell narrowly ahead of her team-mate in second.
Odira triumphed in 1:54.62, just a hundredth of a second outside the British record set by Hodgkinson 12 months prior. Hodgkinson, who had seen her 2025 season derailed by injury, recalled the race when speaking to The Times.
Light-Hearted Banter
When the topic was raised, Hodgkinson started laughing before whispering "b***h" under her breath. It was clearly a light-hearted remark, with the 24-year-old recognising it was a difficult day for her. "But I was dead," she added. "My legs were done for. That is the closest I've come to falling over. It's just one of those things."
Hunter Bell and Hodgkinson then acknowledged that, had the situation been reversed, the Olympic champion would probably not have shown any sympathy to her friend. "It's racing. When we step on the start line we all want to win," Hunter Bell said.
Post-Defeat Dominance
Since that narrow defeat, Hodgkinson has been tough to beat. She set a new world indoor record over 800m in February, shaving nearly a second off a record which had remained intact since the day of her birth in 2002. Just weeks after that achievement, the Manchester athlete posted the second-fastest indoor time in history to clinch gold at the World Indoor Championships in Poland. She finished more than a second ahead of the rest of the field, Audrey Werro and Addy Wiley joining her on the podium.
Eyes on the World Record
Hodgkinson's sights are now firmly set on the outdoor world record and she might even have taken it already were it not for her injury issues last year. She ranks as the sixth-fastest woman of all time over her favoured distance and has looked in impressive form since the injury that disrupted her 2025 season, though she has more than a second to claw back on Jarmila Kratochvilova's record, which has remained unbroken since 1983.
"I'm not afraid to put my goals out there," Hodgkinson said after winning Sports Personality of the Year in 2024. "I'm pretty close [to the world record], I would like to think. I have seen this year what my body is capable of and I'm excited to push on. That world record is something I will always have in the back of my head. But I have so many years to get stronger so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. I trust in Trevor and Jenny (coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows) a lot. I know what shape I'm in before I step on the start line. It all depends if it comes together and that can depend on many things in athletics."
