‘Free spirit’ Keely Hodgkinson of Team GB has devoted coaches in her gold-medal quest
“It takes a village.”
It's a popular response among athletes at Paris 2024, when asked about their road to an Olympic medal.
And it rings true for the new 800m women’s champion, Team GB’s Keely Hodgkinson.
Behind the 22-year-old Hodgkinson’s gold medal is husband-and-wife coaching duo Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who run M11 Track Club in Manchester.
“You don’t want to contain a free spirit like Keely,” Painter said, when explaining how Hodgkinson is one for tardiness.
“If we just put her in this little box, overcoach, say you’ve got to be here by 9 a.m., and set all these rules, it won’t be enjoyable for her," he said. "And it’s the free-thinking, free-spirited Keely who races with not a care in the world, and makes great decisions, even when 70,000 people are screaming and the pressure is on.”
Alongside Hodgkinson, Painter and Meadows work with Team GB’s Georgia Bell and Lewis Davey, Team Ireland’s Sarah Healy and Italian sprinter Gloria Hooper, helping all of them prepare for Paris 2024.
M11 Track Club trains in all weathers, with four-week altitude training camps in destinations such as the Pyrenees and South Africa.
Thanks to their specific training methods, Painter believes that Hodgkinson is still years from reaching her peak — perhaps a worrying realisation for her competitors, which is maximised when remembering that the athlete is still only 22 years of age.
And with age on her side, Painter is convinced that Hodgkinson has a good chance of challenging the current 800m world record of 1:53:28 — her gold medal-winning run at Paris 2024 was 1:56.72.
“There’s something special about Keely; she’s very strong when she wants to do something,” Painter said.
The coaching duo have fostered a family-like environment at M11 Track Club, opting to make the sport fun and promoting camaraderie over stiff, gruelling training scenarios.
“He knows when he is annoying me and I’m not in the mood for his dad's jokes,” Hodgkinson said of Painter, after explaining that she “couldn’t be coached by a normal coach.”
What perhaps differentiates Painter and Meadows from other coaches is their prioritisation of what they consider a normal life.
When Hodgkinson's 21st birthday coincided with the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the coaches suggested she take a holiday with a friend to celebrate — the only caveat being that she had to fit in two runs and a cross-training session.
“We care about her having some cool experiences,” Meadows explained.
Perhaps its "cool experiences' like these, coupled with the down-to-earth ethos of M11 Track Club, that have kept Hodgkinson so grounded in her continued rise to glory.