For a start, at the last Olympics in Tokyo, where she competed as a 19-year-old, she won a silver medal in the 800m with a personal best of 1:55.88.

Hodgkinson was determined to beat her personal best and she did, not only breaking the British record of 1:56:21 held by Kelly Holmes, but also beating herself. Just a week before the Paris Olympics, Keely Hodgkinson broke her own record.

Born in Atherton, a village near Manchester in the north of England, she went to school with future football star Ella Toone. At the age of nine, Hodgkinson joined her current team, Leigh Harriers, and took up athletics, inspired by the gold medal-winning performance of British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Team GB star soon began winning national and European youth titles, paving the way for her success in 2021. She also has European outdoor titles in 2022, European indoor titles in 2021 and 2023, and two second-place finishes at the World Championships in Oregon and Budapest.

A lover of simple pleasures, sought after by brands and the media, she confessed to the Telegraph that she now only has gold on her mind. Reigning women's Olympic 800 metres champion Athing Mu will not defend her title at next month's Paris Games after suffering a dramatic fall at the US trials in Eugene, Oregon.

The 22-year-old, one of the sensations of the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Games, crashed to the track at around the 200m mark in the final at Hayward Field. Mu, who was also a member of the USA's victorious 4x400m relay team in Tokyo, crossed the finish line in tears after failing to make up ground following her tumble.