Olympic Champion Keely Hodgkinson Reveals Hamstring Abnormality

Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson has revealed an "abnormality" in her hamstring, discovered through an MRI scan, which has led her to adjust her training approach. The 24-year-old sprinter explained that her body "is quite literally built differently," possessing two tendons in her hamstring where most individuals have one.

This condition, which Hodgkinson is still learning to manage, allows her to continue running even if one tendon is torn. However, it also potentially makes her more susceptible to injury. She described the situation as "a weird one" where she can still train, having not missed any sessions in the past three weeks, but has had to reduce speed training due to the increased risk.

The discovery follows a period of injury struggles for Hodgkinson since her Olympic gold medal win. After a hamstring injury in February 2025, she waited over a year to race again. Upon her return in August 2025, she secured consecutive Diamond League victories and set a new indoor 800m world record in February 2026, followed by a World Indoor Championship gold medal a month later.

Despite these indoor successes, replicating that outdoor form has been challenging, including three defeats by Swiss runner Audrey Werro. Following her second-place finish to Werro at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September, Hodgkinson disclosed she had sustained another hamstring tear at the European Championships in Birmingham weeks earlier.

Hodgkinson also mentioned a previous incident where a fall during a warm-down session along a canal resulted in cuts to both knees and whiplash-like jarring in her back. While she acknowledged this fall could have contributed to her European Championship injury, ruling her out of subsequent Diamond League meets, she emphasized she is not using it as an excuse.

"Part of me wants to talk about it and then part of me doesn't, because I feel like my words get twisted or people are like 'oh, she's making excuses'," Hodgkinson said. "Going into the Europeans, I thought I was in the best shape ever. But when I fell over, that kind of messed me up way more than I thought it did. I think that's what contributed to my hamstring, because I couldn't really use my quad for a while."

Describing 2026 as "frustrating" after her defeat by Werro at the Ultimate Championship, Hodgkinson maintained optimism, stating, "Overall, I'm finishing second in the world and I can't really be too hard on myself for that."

Hodgkinson is scheduled to conclude her 2026 season at the all-female Athlos event in London on Friday.