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At just 17 years old, Phoebe Gill is the latest in an ever growing list of phenom teenage athletes, and will be the youngest member of the Team GB athletics delegation heading to Paris. Hailed as “the real deal” by Paula Dunn, head coach of UK Athletics, Gill has taken the athletics world by storm.
Set to compete in the 800m as part of a star-studded British roster on the track, Gill is considered by many to be the ‘next big thing’ for British athletics. Her meteoric rise has seen her progress from school-level championships to Olympic qualification in less than a year.
Gill’s sporting career began in swimming rather than running, an experience which she credits for developing her work ethic thanks to regular early morning training sessions. It was not until primary school that she first started running, encouraged to sign up for cross country by a PE teacher. It was then that she discovered not just a talent for athletics but also a passion. She threw herself headlong into athletics in year six, joining the St Albans Athletic Club at U11 level.
Gill began to turn heads worldwide with a record-setting run in May. At a meet in Belfast, she recorded a time of 1:57.86, nearly two seconds clear of the previous European U18 record which had stood for over 40 years. Despite arriving late to the race, her time was also good enough to set a new personal best by almost four seconds as she broke the two-minute mark for the first time. Her effort was also 1.44 seconds clear of the Olympic qualifying benchmark, qualifying her to compete for a spot on the Team GB roster.
In the years leading up to that breakout run, Gill had been quietly climbing the ranks of world athletics, fleshing out her resume with a pair of U17 records in both 800m and 1500m ahead of a gold medal finish in her debut Commonwealth Youth Games appearance last year. Taking place in Trinidad and Tobago, Gill will be well adjusted to the Paris heat, which is set to top 30C in the days leading up to her own race.
She qualified for Team GB after claiming a maiden British title in June, beating out her future Team GB partner Jemma Reekie as she did so.
Her breakthrough has drawn comparisons to Keely Hodgkinson, who broke out in similarly sensational fashion ahead of the Tokyo games, qualifying at just 19 and bringing home a silver medal. The pair will go toe-to-toe in Paris, with both runners already tipped to qualify for the final and Hodgkinson in the form of her life after winning the prestigious Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.
She will also be made to face formidable opposition in Allie Wilson, current American champion in the 800m, and Nia Akina, 2023’s champion.
Should Gill win gold in Paris, she would become the youngest 800m gold medalist by quite some margin, the next youngest being Team USA’s Athing Mu, who was just 19 years old when she took to the top step of the podium in Tokyo.
