Keely Hodgkinson is ready to embrace the pressure of being Team GB’s poster girl by winning Olympic gold. She also arrives in Paris with a prediction: that Britain has some of its “most talented and mentally driven” competitors.
The brilliant 22-year-old is a free spirit off the track and an extraordinary force on it. This week she has been walking around the British prep camp with Chanel sunglasses and a Louis Vuitton handbag – and while some staff have pointed out that it’s not official GB kit, she has shrugged it off. But when it comes to her performances, no one would question her ability.
Hodgkinson showed she was on peak form by winning the 800m at the London Diamond League in 1min 54.61sec last week – making her the sixth quickest woman in history – and she is convinced she can handle the pressure of being one of Team GB’s bankers.
“I’m not going to say it doesn’t go through my head, but what happened last weekend was great and fills me with confidence,” she says. “Going into London I just wanted to give it my all. To knock 0.7sec off my national record is just so great.
“And the way I ran it as well, leading the whole way, I think there could be more in there. It shows how much work I’ve put in and how much I want it.”
As a 10-year-old, Hodgkinson watched Jessica Ennis-Hill win heptathlon gold at London 2012 and was inspired to take up athletics seriously. Now she finds herself as the focus of attention on the eve of the Games.
“If anyone sees me as the poster girl like she was then that’s quite the achievement,” says Hodgkinson, who won an 800m silver medal at the Tokyo Games as a teenager. “I’m privileged to be in this position. And it’s quite a tribute to follow in her footsteps. Hopefully I can go on and do what she did and bring home the gold.”
And that confidence, she detects, is there across the British team. Asked whether she expected lots of medals at these Games, she replied: “I think so. We have some of the most talented and mentally driven athletes that we’ve seen in a long time.
“There are so many medal hopes out there, finalists. Anything can happen. Don’t just focus on the medallists. Some people ranked lower down can come and surprise you.”
What has made Hodgkinson’s recent performance so impressive is that she was injured at the start of the year, which forced her to miss the world indoor championships in Glasgow, and she was unwell during the European championships in June.
“A lot of this year has been about perseverance,” she said. “It has not gone smoothly. I’ve had a lot of challenges personally on the track and off it. To see it all come together has been very satisfying.
“I’ve just worked hard, kept my head down and even when I was injured and out for a while, it felt like one thing after another. But this last 10 days has really given me the confidence to really go for it.”
