Keely Hodgkinson is known to enjoy cutting lose and celebrating her hard-earned success on the track
Keely Hodgkinson’s modest nature was plain to see when she marked her World Athletics Championship triumph alongside Georgia Hunter Bell in Tokyo last year. Team GB legend Seb Coe recently described Hodgkinson as one of the most down-to-earth individuals he’s ever encountered.
The 24-year-old 800m star is flying high after shattering the world indoor record and claiming indoor gold to add to her burgeoning medal haul earlier in 2026.
Hodgkinson’s remarkable achievements on the track come at the cost of enormous sacrifice and a punishing training schedule. Blowing off steam goes with the territory and even Coe, the World Athletics president, has commended her approach to letting her hair down.
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Speaking in September 2025, fellow athlete and Hodgkinson’s friend and training companion, Hunter Bell, revealed what an evening out with the Olympic pair actually involves. Following their silver and bronze medal haul at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, she remembered how they celebrated the occasion.
“It was late and we were like, ‘It’s time to go celebrate’ so we headed straight for a karaoke bar obviously,” she said. “It was a couple of hours there, just a lot of songs and singing, and then we finished it off by going to McDonald’s so just a classic night out really.”
Asked what songs they performed, she added: “We did Natasha Bedingfield and [Justin] Bieber, there was also some Elvis of course… Suspicious Minds.”
World Athletics president Coe has also weighed in on Hodgkinson’s fondness for celebrating and her down-to-earth character. The 69-year-old spotted the athlete out for her 24th birthday.
Coe, who claimed 1500m gold at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, told the UNTAPPED podcast: “I was on my way out [of a restaurant]. I’d sort of done the early shift and she turned up, and it was her birthday. I mean, she’d only just broken the indoor world record.
“She was only literally a few days away from destroying the field and winning her world indoor title and she was just out celebrating her birthday. She’s just completely normal, but she is incredibly talented. I’m probably going to lose whatever fan base I’ve got left in the south of England, but she’s absolutely rooted to the north of England and that for me counts for a lot in life.”
Hodgkinson’s unwavering commitment to training means she can’t accompany friends for regular evenings out. Nevertheless, she doesn’t miss out entirely on a social life.
She told The Times in 2024: “I make the most of my off-periods, so when I’m training I don’t feel like I’m missing out. I still go out with my friends, I’ll get dressed up, go for the dinner part and leave when they head off to the club. Every year in September, I’ll book a night out and they’ll get one night out with me. We’re to Manchester to [the Middle Eastern restaurant] Habbibi. I’ll drink.”
Hodgkinson is preparing for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, which kicks off in July and the European Championships in Birmingham, scheduled for August.
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