Every child runs at first for enjoyment. If you persevere, though, you’ll soon require another motivation. All eight ladies competing in the 800-meter Olympic final had different motivations. For Juliette Whittaker of the USA, it was because her parents were track athletes; for Renelle Lamote of France, it was because her PE teacher instructed her to; for Mary Moraa of Kenya, it was just because she attended school and returned; and for Keely Hodgkinson, who was born in Atherton, it was because she wanted to be the best at whatever she could win.
If her parents hadn’t told her that she would have more prospects as a runner, Hodgkinson would have been a brilliant swimmer. She had to make the change because of this.
Hodgkinson was spotted ready to take the track with the other runners on a video in the call room, seven minutes before the final began. Moraa, her fiercest competitor and the winner of the World Championships the previous year, was moving all over the place in the background to release some energy. Hodgkinson didn’t blink, though. Her jaw was clenched, her mouth was downturned, and she stayed still as if she didn’t hear the 70,000 fans that had gathered in the stadium outside the entrance. She was contemplating the same thought that precedes every race: victory.
Since she watched Jess Ennis-Hill win the heptathlon on TV in London in 2012, Hodgkinson had been wondering about this race since she was ten years old. She was somewhat out of touch with the sport at the time, but she eventually got back into it. She had, of course, been here before, three years prior, when she was just 19, and had emerged from nowhere to take second place in the Tokyo competition behind the 19-year-old American sensation Athing Mu. Hodgkinson was so ecstatic at the moment that her adrenaline was pumping so hard that she couldn’t sleep for the next two nights. Not that it felt like a loss at all.
However, that enthusiasm subsided with time. She had no desire for a silver medal. Nevermind.
Hodgkinson contested Mu in another race at the Eugene World Championships a year later. Hodgkinson had a plan this time, as did her coach Trevor Painter. Hodgkinson tried to catch up with Mu after she switched to the second lane at the last turn, but she was pursued for the first 600 meters. Down the home stretch, they ran shoulder to shoulder, but Hodgkinson was unable to completely catch up to Mu because of her slightly longer stride and slightly stronger body. Once again, she came in second. However, this time, there was only an eight hundredth of a second separating them.
Hodgkinson had to defeat Mu, though. Encouraged by her friend and tutor Helen Obiri, Moraa, 24, decided to move up from the 400 meters. Moraa was directly on Mu’s shoulder throughout that Eugene race. To come in second, Hodgkinson had to overcome her. Two weeks later, in the last 25 meters of the Commonwealth Games final in Birmingham, Moraa overtook Hodgkinson in an attempt to win the lead.
The 800 meters for women suddenly turned into a three-way race. The trio, who were born within two years of one another, attempted to use the same tactic that nearly succeeded a year prior when they competed at the World Championships in Budapest one year later. Mu was in front, Moraa was on one shoulder, and Hodgkinson was on the other. She went past Mu this time. The issue was that Moraa overtook them both in the second lane, running wide, and won by a mere tenth of a second.
That meant that Hodgkinson had participated in four major finals and won four silver medals during her four years as a senior. In every aspect, she had come in second place as a runner. She was also sick of it.
In that room, Moraa was the only woman who had a genuine chance of defeating Hodgkinson in Paris. When Hodgkinson entered the event’s all-time top 10 this season, the other six women in the final had little chance of performing as well as she did. Mu also failed to qualify for the Games; she stumbled and fell during the American trials, and she was unable to re-enter the race even with her best efforts. At the moment, Hodgkinson said she felt terrible for Mu, but it appeared like Mu was grinning too much for someone who was supposedly distraught.
As scheduled, at 200 meters, Hodgkinson pulled ahead in this race. Even though Moraa was directly behind her this time, Hodgkinson prevented her from getting shoulder to shoulder. Rather, in the final corner, she raced forward and suddenly withdrew. As Moraa attempted to rejoin the pack and failed to run back up to Hodgkinson, Ethiopia’s Tigist Duguma past her, and she broke away down the home straight, with nothing but fresh air between them.
To cross that finish line, Hodgkinson had to endure countless hours, miles, and losses. In the end, she triumphed so convincingly that you were left wondering why it had appeared to be so difficult for her to win in the first place.
