Keely Hodgkinson made MBE to add to her Paris Olympics 800m gold and SPOTY award
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Newly-made Member of the Order of the British Empire Keely Hodgkinson only began to truly embrace her own significant impact after winning Olympic gold in Paris, say her coaches. The 22-year-old capped off a glittering 2024 by winning Sports Personality of the Year in December, and kick-starts 2025 with inclusion on the New Year Honours list for her services to athletics.
Hodgkinson, then 19, collected 800 metres silver at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics three years ago, but has found her life forever-altered after upgrading at the Stade de France in August. Jenny Meadows, who alongside husband Trevor Painter were named SPOTY coach-of-the-year winners, told the PA news agency: “Whenever anyone said to her prior to winning the gold medal, ‘you’re a role model, my young daughter watches you, etc’, she’s so nice that she doesn’t see herself in that way. But now I think she thinks, ‘OK, now I’ve won an Olympic gold, so I understand that’.
“And she always says, ‘it’s so strange, the difference between silver and gold’. And obviously it was an Olympics, it’s the biggest stage, but I think she’s just owning it, in a very nice, humble way.”. I feel like since the gold we’ve got the real Keely back.
“The values are very similar to ours, in that it’s about humility, it’s about hard work (and) it’s about having fun,” said Painter, who added: “I feel like since the gold we’ve got the real Keely back, because there was all that pressure and expectation put on (her) at a really young age, and she struggled to deal with it all.
