The 22-year-old middle-distance runner attracted the biggest audience of any sport during the entire Games
Keely Hodgkinson’s Olympic 800m gold medal run was the most watched event during the whole of Paris 2024.
Keely Hodgkinson
An incredible 9.1m people – on BBC One and iPlayer – tuned in to witness Hodgkinson’s triumph at the Stade de France as she became the first British female Olympic athletics champion since Jessica Ennis-Hill at London 2012.
Hodgkinson ran 1:56.72 to claim the title and saw off world champion Mary Moraa – the Kenyan beat Hodgkinson to the crown in Budapest last year – and Tsige Duguma to finish first.
“I’ve worked so hard over the last year and you could see how much it meant to me as I crossed the line,” said Hodgkinson afterward. “I can’t believe I’ve finally done it. It means so much to me. And to do it here, where better? The audience was incredible, it felt like a home crowd to me. So I’m super happy.
“I wanted to be up near the front anyway, probably quicker after the first lap, but doing the semi-final and the final back to back everyone was tired. It’s tough. I trusted myself, I could feel Mary coming at me down the back straight. But I showed composure and I got to the line first this time.
“I had a cheeky look at the screen just to make sure but you can’t do anything until you cross that line. I’m now the Olympic champion for the next four years and nobody can take that away from me.”
Keely Hodgkinson celebrates with Trevor Painter (Getty)
Only Ann Packer (1964) and Kelly Holmes (2004) had won the Olympic women’s 800m for Great Britain but Hodgkinson is now part of that illustrious group.
Hodgkinson’s golden run was followed closely by Adam Peaty’s silver medal in the 100m breaststroke with 8.5m.
Noah Lyles’ narrow victory in the 100m and Gabby Thomas’ win in the 200m were watched by 8.4m and 7.9m respectively.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed Olympic heptathlon silver and 7.3m tuned into her 800m.
“The Paris 2024 Olympic Games during this remarkable summer of sport has seen some truly incredible medal moments and we have witnessed a host of new sports stars emerge on an international level,” said Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport.
“With world-class on-air performances and production, BBC Sport has been there to champion the athletes and to take the audience on a journey across multiple sporting disciplines.”
“It isn’t exactly about what is placed before me — the cash,” she says. “Assuming that you did everything, you would demolish yourself fundamentally attempting to fit everything in. The primary center is olympic style events; that is the very thing gets the extraordinary supporters who I take care of business with. Luckily I’m in a position where I can single out.
“I think there is likewise an essential side to who you work inside as far as where you maintain that your image should go. I like to work with brands I put stock in fundamentally.”
Days on from her gold decoration, it is an objective that Hodgkinson isn’t simply holding on yet prepared to develop. Supports Nike additionally seem, by all accounts, to be preparing for their next huge mission.
Given the timing, minutes after the acknowledgment of a fantasy, it was an explanation that recommended Hodgkinson won’t let every one of the entryways that will currently open become an interruption from the basic quest for speed. Taking into account the hugeness of the ladies’ 800-meter world record, set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova during a time of Eastern Coalition strength, it was an explanation that could scarcely likewise have been bolder.
One of the principal individuals Keely Hodgkinson saw after gloriously running into Olympic history was Jenny Knolls, a mentor for whom one elevating a piece of this brilliant excursion had been having her confidence and satisfaction in games reestablished.
“Olympic boss – what’s left to accomplish?” asked Glades, whose own extensive accomplishments on the worldwide stage were perpetually weakened by doped rivals.
Hodgkinson answered with only two words: “World record.”
No world record has endured longer and a lot in the game, like twofold Olympic boss Svetlana Masterkova, have seen the possibility of beating it as “unimaginable”.
“It is the longest-standing history ever – north of 40 years at this point,” she says. “I’d very much want to draw near to it. I began to accept we could half a month prior. I work intimately with advancements at Nike. On the off chance that innovation is assisting the human body with doing astounding things, I believe that is something extraordinary. They have a task of attempting to get to the ladies’ 800m record – how they might help – and that’s what I invite. The fans get energized when they see incredible exhibitions and times that they never suspected could occur.”
‘It’s not necessary to focus on the money. I like to work with brands I trust in’
Hodgkinson likewise has a sensible thought regarding how she will move toward other groundbreaking open doors. The rundown of design houses and organizations who might want to connect with her is long and stretching. The rundown of genuine business accomplices has been intentionally restricted and, having quite recently concurred an arrangement with Rimmel (it did her London Precious stone Association make-up), she plans to stay specific.
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