Since winning the hearts of fans at the last summer, Keely Hodgkinson's life has been a whirlwind. The Olympic gold medalist shot to fame after dominating the 800m event in Paris.

She has been a force in the athletics world since her breakthrough in 2021, where she claimed silver at the Tokyo Games. The Manchester-born athlete also secured a silver medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships and her first senior outdoor gold at the European Championships in Munich the same year. Furthermore, she the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award last year. As her celebrity status grows, Hodgkinson has been spotted at high-profile events such as the Brit Awards and the 2025 Formula 1 launch. With the young star gearing up for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September, we delve deeper into her life beyond the track.

Hodgkinson's remarkable success has not come without its challenges, and she has previously spoken out about a harrowing experience involving a tumour that left her partially deaf in one ear.

"It crushed through my hearing bones and it was just touching my spine," she told Sky Sports in 2024. "So the risk for the operation was to take it out or keep it in.

"If you keep it in and let it grow, it can hit the spine and I could end up with Facial Palsy. Now that was quite scary for a 13-year-old girl to think that could happen, but the bones were already crushed anyway so they tried to save them, but that turned out why I had a lot of hearing problems growing up."

She revealed that it also caused her to miss a month of school during her childhood. "I couldn't walk - which is weird to think - because it's in your ear, your balance and things like that," she added.

In an October interview with The Sunday Times, the middle-distance runner confessed that her three-year romance came to an end in January 2024. Her former partner, also a runner, resided overseas and Hodgkinson acknowledged the strain the long-distance put on their relationship.

"Long-distance killed it," she said. "He was living in Texas and then Italy, and with my schedule, we could go weeks without seeing each other. It was tough."

"I'm not really interested in dating right now," she added. "I've never been on the apps. I like meeting people in real life."

The track star admitted to feeling heartbroken when her attempt to set a new world indoor 800m record this February fell through.

The Olympic champion was struck by misfortune when she tore her hamstring during the final training session before the Keely Klassic in Birmingham, a new event named after her.

"Things really came together well and just at the last second, it's sadly been taken away," she said to Sky News. "That's probably why this happened. Too much speed and the muscles can't quite take it yet. Each year I'm getting stronger and stronger."

She has now set her sights on breaking the 42-year-old record, set in 1983 by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova. "I look forward to having that as a really big target and seeing how fast I can go," she added.

Her focus is now on recovery, with the aim of returning to top form and continuing her dominance on the track in Tokyo this Autumn.