Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson has expressed confidence in breaking the women's 800m outdoor world record after smashing the indoor version. The British athlete clocked 1:54.87 in Lievin, France, surpassing a mark that stood since her birthdate in 2002. She believes the longstanding outdoor record, set in 1983, is within reach with the right conditions.
Keely Hodgkinson, the 23-year-old Olympic gold medalist from the Paris 2024 Games, recently broke the women's indoor 800m world record with a time of 1:54.87 during a meet in Lievin, France. This performance ended a record that had stood since 3 March 2002, the day Hodgkinson was born. Her coach, Jenny Meadows, noted that the time could have been up to one second faster under optimal conditions.
Hodgkinson, who tore her hamstring shortly after her Olympic triumph and faced a challenging recovery, told BBC Sport she feels "closer than ever" to surpassing the outdoor record of 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in Munich in July 1983—the longest-standing mark in athletics. "It's not an easy feat and there's a reason it has stood for so long," she said. "I think this is the closest I've felt near it. I do really believe that we can break it, but a lot of things have got to come together."
Despite injury setbacks in 2025, which included a world 800m bronze in September while her training partner Georgia Hunter Bell took silver, Hodgkinson described the year as "my best year." She credited her healthiest winter training in years and a personal reinvention, dubbed 'Keely 2.0' by teammates, for her progress. Coach Trevor Painter even gifted her a 40-kilogram Himalayan salt lamp to "send happy vibes" during rehabilitation.
World Athletics president Lord Coe told the Sunday Times he expects Hodgkinson to break the record this year. Claims persist that Kratochvilova's performance benefited from doping in her country at the time, though she denies them. Hodgkinson's personal best outdoors remains 1:54.61, a British record from London in 2024.
Looking ahead, Hodgkinson is favored for gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland in March. She also commented on two-time 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol's entry into the 800m, where Bol set a Dutch record of 1:59.07 in her debut in Metz, France. "Me and Femke are really good friends," Hodgkinson said. "I wouldn't call it a rivalry right now, but she's good, and she'll get where she needs to be when she's ready."
Hodgkinson expressed interest in attempting the record in London, calling it "very special" and noting her coach's prediction that 2026 would be a strong year.
