Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson revealed that an MRI scan last year uncovered a rare hamstring abnormality where her tendon is split into two. Speaking ahead of the season-ending Athlos event in London, the 24-year-old explained how the congenital variation impacts her training and recovery following an injury-plagued two-year period.
Anatomy and MRI Discoveries
For an elite middle-distance runner, biomechanical anomalies usually spell disaster. But according to The Independent, Hodgkinson’s recent medical scans revealed a unique structural difference. Rather than the standard single-tendon setup, her hamstring features a split tendon structure where she possesses two tendons.
“My body is quite literally built different. I have two tendons where the tendon tore (last year). So where everyone has one tendon, mine is split, so I have two,” Hodgkinson stated, as reported by The Independent. Medical teams are still evaluating whether this anatomical quirk functions as an asset or a liability under elite training loads.
Fantasy & Market Impact
- Event Circuit Draw: Her participation in Alexis Ohanian’s all-female Athlos event in London provides a high-profile platform to close out the 2026 campaign strongly.
Navigating Setbacks and 2026 Form
The path following Hodgkinson’s gold medal run at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has featured distinct hurdles. After a prolonged layoff due to a February hamstring tear, she bounced back in August 2025 with consecutive Diamond League victories and secured an indoor 800m world record alongside a World Indoor Championship gold in early 2026.
| Event / Milestone | Result / Status | Context |
|---|---|---|
| World Indoor Championships | Gold Medal | Followed a new indoor 800m world record in February 2026. |
| European Championships (Birmingham) | Defeat / 2nd | Preceded by a grade 2C hamstring tear and a separate knee-cutting fall. |
| Ultimate Championship (Budapest) | 2nd Place | Finished behind Swiss rival Audrey Werro. |
Outdoor consistency proved tougher to maintain. Hodgkinson suffered three defeats to Audrey Werro—including losing her European crown. Compounding the physical strain, a freak warm-down accident along a canal left her with cuts to both knees and whiplash-like jarring in her back, severely hampering her quad engagement and indirectly stressing her hamstring ahead of the European final.
Adapting the Training Paradigm
Despite the setbacks, The Independent notes that Hodgkinson has not missed training sessions over a crucial three-week stretch. Instead, her support staff shifted the physiological focus away from high-risk velocity drills toward a strength-centric regimen.
“You can still run on them, there’s no danger of moving (to the other one). I haven’t missed any training the last three weeks, I’ve just had to alter my approach, take my foot off the speed, because that’s when it’s most risky, and go at it from a strength perspective,” Hodgkinson explained to The Independent. With the emergence of elite competitors like Werro pushing sub-1:54 paces, Hodgkinson remains focused on long-term goals, including Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 43-year-old 800m world record.
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