Inside Keely Hodgkinson’s ‘s***show’ of a year: Britain’s Olympics golden girl is raking it in with sponsor deals – but is Emma Raducanu-style fall a fear after struggles on the track?

When Keely Hodgkinson claimed the Olympic 800 meters title in Paris in the summer of 2024, the Wigan-born sensation was hailed as British sport’s golden girl.

The then 22-year-old arrived in the French capital as a heavy favorite but did so under intense pressure, scrutiny and expectation.

This was followed by numerous awards including the Sports Personality of the Year award. Hodgkinson already had lucrative deals with global brands such as Nike and Omega, and experts predicted after the event that he could earn as much as £1 million a year from endorsements alone ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Fast forward 14 months before Paris and Hodgkinson is reeling from a year he candidly describes as a ‘s*** show’, sparking concerns that he could be in danger of following other successful athletes such as Emma Raducanu by failing to take full advantage of his success.

It’s been a season from hell for Hodgkinson, Britain’s only 2024 Olympic athletics gold medalist.

He was struggling with a hamstring problem shortly after the Games and suffered a muscle tear shortly before returning for a world record attempt at his own event, the Keely Klassic, in Birmingham in February.

Hodgkinson’s victory in Paris in the summer of 2024 saw her crowned British sport’s golden girl

Hodgkinson subsequently suffered two significant setbacks; one of which was a situation in which he was responsible for sitting in a car for too long on his way to collecting an MBE to recognize his Olympic achievement in May.

Hodgkinson was still the clear winner in the 800 meters at last month’s World Championships in Tokyo – despite competing just twice this year and making his first appearance since Paris at just one meeting in August – but could only manage third place, a result that left him clearly disappointed.

While running at the event in Japan, he was struggling again, this time with a back and stomach ailment.

Hodgkinson admitted he had a “tough” year before heading to Tokyo and his second injury “definitely broke my heart a bit”.

‘I was very depressed after that,’ he added.

Hodgkinson’s enforced break from the track spanned 376 days, much of which was spent trying to return to action.

“People thought I wasn’t doing anything,” he told The Guardian. ‘When you’re already in a bad place, negative comments attract your attention more. The human brain naturally looks for negativity and what people think, even when it is so far from reality. I like the block button. ‘This is my favourite.’

Hodgkinson’s celebrity status has increased even when he’s not on the track, giving him a different kind of pressure to deal with. She appeared on the Jonathan Ross Show in February and wowed fans with her daring outfit on the BRIT Awards red carpet a month later.

Hodgkinson stunned fans with her bold new brunette look last week, rocking dark chocolate curls

However, she quickly abandoned her new bold brunette look, choosing to go back to blonde.

The 23-year-old Olympic champion wrote “Jungle Barbie” in her post while announcing the return of the blonde.

She remains one of Britain’s most famous female athletes. It no longer flies under the radar. Everything he does is scrutinized. She even made headlines earlier this month after she changed up her look and was photographed with darker hair as she touched down in New York ahead of the all-female Athlos athletics event.

Captioning new headshots showing her transformation from various angles, she wrote: ‘New York made me do it.’

Three days earlier, the typically blonde Hodgkinson had won the all-women’s meet with a time of one minute and 56.53 seconds and was duly rewarded by tennis legend Serena Williams with the spoils of her victory and a crown worth nearly £22,000.

Then last week, she stunned fans in a white bikini and braless, see-through dress after sharing photos of her holiday to the Maldives.

The athlete wrote “Pisces are friends” under her bikini photo while sipping her drink.

She also shared a video of herself wearing a very sheer red dress that she wore without a bra as she buckled the viral trend ‘Throwing a Fit’.

This trend involves the person saying ‘Sorry I’m late, I was having a fit…’ before introducing ‘fit’ and showing off their new outfit.

His social media activities are not for everyone and have sparked criticism from people who think the focus should be solely on the track.

Hodgkinson recently posted photos of her holiday in the Maldives, including a white bikini

She also shared this photo of herself wearing a very see-through red dress while posing with her friends.

It looked like everyone was having a good time on the trip, enjoying the sun and drinking coconuts.

Even though it’s unfair, it still feels very familiar. Raducanu went through a similar process after transforming from an up-and-coming prospect to a global superstar in the weeks following her US Open victory as an unseeded 18-year-old in 2021.

Still, the 22-year-old British tennis star perhaps offers Hodgkinson a blueprint for what not to do after such a career-defining success.

Raducanu has yet to win a major trophy since his stunning success at Flushing Meadows and has been open about some of the reasons behind his struggles.

In late 2024, he admitted that his off-court business activities affected his tennis in the years after his US Open victory.

‘Of course I’m very grateful and lucky to have had certain experiences and opportunities, but I wasn’t prepared for this,’ he said.

‘I was always working really hard but I don’t think I was prepared for the other things that inevitably drain your energy.

‘I think I’m much more organized now. I’ll be like: ‘Okay, this time we’ll talk business for an hour. Now I’m going to train for the rest of the week’. I also think I’ve learned to say no a little more.

‘Initially I felt really bad for letting people down. No matter what partner or magazine it is or what I’m shooting for, I always want to do something extra.

Hodgkinson has been compared to Emma Raducanu, who has struggled since rising to fame after winning the US Open in 2021 as an 18-year-old.

‘If they want to do another half day I’m always willing to do extra. I would do this and fit into my schedule. ‘I’d do my training early and do it in the afternoon.’

There are other parallels. Like Hodgkinson, Raducanu faced a lot of injury problems and had difficulty coping with the demands of being a ‘famous athlete’.

It’s up to Hodgkinson to make sure Raducanu learns from her mistakes and retains her crown as Britain’s golden girl.