Coach Trevor Painter and Keely Hodgkinson on learning to deal with success, the potential still to be realised and the path towards Olympic 800m gold in Paris
Searing speed. A grit and determination to push herself to greater heights. Good, old fashioned natural ability. These are all reasons for Keely Hodgkinson’s Olympic 800m rivals to be fearful. Her coach Trevor Painter has identified another, though.
“We’re starting to see the old Keely again,” he smiles. “She has definitely come to terms with things. She is a lot bubblier, happier and effervescent again.”
That has not always been the case since the then 19-year-old sped into the sporting spotlight at the Tokyo Games three years ago, breaking the British record as she flew down an inside line to secure 800m silver.
After that race her world, and Painter’s, changed almost instantly. Hodgkinson went from the unknown of whom little was expected to being one of the biggest British success stories of those Games. She recently admitted to having experienced a period of depression as she tried to come to terms with the post-Olympic comedown and her new status as a young woman in demand.
Hodgkinson is a keen Manchester United fan and Painter draws parallels to Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary manager at Old Trafford, when discussing how he and his wife – fellow coach and former international athlete Jenny Meadows – tried to help her deal with it all.
“She has been through some tough times in the last couple of years but it’s hard to come to terms with all of that at a young age,” he says. “We see it in football, with young kids bursting on to the scene. I know Fergie was always really good at protecting Ryan Giggs in the early days and didn’t want him to have much attention.
“Suddenly you’ve got all these people wanting to talk to you and money on the table for this, that and the other, and it can be daunting when you are trying to train and run. She has managed it really well.”
Keely Hodgkinson wins silver in Tokyo (Getty)
Painter believes a happy athlete is a fast athlete and by that measure Hodgkinson’s recent performances would suggest a high level of contentment. The 22-year-old has got back into some old habits, such as winding her fellow training partners up, laughing and joking again.
There has been nothing funny about her work on the track in 2024, though. Fuelled by the frustration of silver medals at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships when a global title…
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