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Rubbing shoulders with Giorgio Armani at Milan Fashion Week stands out as the craziest moment in what has been a designer year in the life of Keely Hodgkinson.
The 22-year-old admits life has not been the same since she won Olympic 800 metres gold in the summer, an achievement which makes her odds-on favourite to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year prize on Tuesday.
Hodgkinson is getting used to being recognised more frequently – including while painting pottery in a Sale cafe – but the keen fashionista singled out being introduced to Armani as the point where 2024 became most surreal.
“He came over to me and he put his hand on my cheek and called me ‘bella’, which I thought was really nice,” Hodgkinson, who also attended the Burberry show at London Fashion Week, recalled.
“I met him in Milan at Fashion Week briefly. He can’t speak English, but he’s quite into sport.
“(Italian high jumper Gianmarco) Tamberi was there as well, I think he’s sponsored by Armani, and some of the Italian swimmers and we all met him.
“It was just quite funny because he’s just this powerful, small (man). He’s a lot older now, he’s 90 years old, but he looks great. He’s still heavily involved in his work, and I think that was a really cool moment.”
The coolest moment of all though for Hodgkinson was that victory in Paris, which has been commemorated with a tattoo behind her ear.
“This year for me has been everything I could have imagined, really,” she added.
“It didn’t start off so great (due to injury), but it ended better than I ever could have thought. I achieved everything.
Keely Hodgkinson attended the Burberry show at London Fashion Week in September (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Hodgkinson is targeting a treble of European indoor, world indoor and world outdoor gold medals in 2025.
Asked whether it also be the year when she could challenge Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova’s world record of one minute 53.28, set in 1951, she said: “I do think the 1.53 is possible. I think we’re so close to getting down there, but obviously it takes a special race, you’ve got to be in perfect shape, perfect conditions, the right race for all that to come together.
“So it just depends if the opportunity presents itself. It could happen next year, it could happen the year after that, it could take three years, I just don’t know. But I will definitely put myself in the best position to do so.”
Winning Sports Personality of the Year would be special for Hodgkinson, but success for her mentor Trevor Painter in the coach category would top it.
He had the honour of coaching three Team GB Olympic medallists from Paris – in addition to Hodgkinson, Georgia Bell claimed bronze in the same race and Lewis Davey also took the same medal in the men’s 4x400m relay.
The shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2024 has been confirmed!#SPOTY pic.twitter.com/GqUNmO6kKs
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 9, 2024
“I think it would be even better than me winning it, to be honest,” Hodgkinson said about a Painter victory on the night.
“He deserves it so much. I’m not sure of any other coach this year that has put forward as much as he has, getting three Olympic medals within our training group.
“He just creates such a fun environment for us all that makes us want to keep coming and keep working hard.
“He’s got a really good work ethic and he believes in all of us. That’s what’s helped us achieve so much on the track.”
Second favourite for the BBC’s main prize is darts’ new superstar Luke Littler, who reached the PDC World Championship final aged 16 in January and has gone on to claim 10 trophies.
Luke Littler is second favourite for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year prize (Zac Goodwin/PA)
Jude Bellingham, who inspired Real Madrid to Champions League glory before being part of the England team which reached the Euro 2024 final, is also nominated, alongside Joe Root who broke the England men’s Test runs record earlier this year.
Success for Hodgkinson or Storey would make it a fourth consecutive year that the prize has been claimed by a woman, following Emma Raducanu in 2021, Beth Mead in 2022 and Mary Earps last year.
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