2011–2017: Early career Hodgkinson joined
Leigh Harriers at the age of nine and won county championships in middle-distance events. She also swam with Howe Bridge Aces Swimming Club before devoting herself fully to running. In 2012, aged ten, she competed at the British Schools
Modern Biathlon Championships in London. Hodgkinson finished second in the
500 m run, and after the 50 m swim, she ended in eighth place overall. Her father encouraged her to focus on athletics rather than swimming, and she was inspired by
Jessica Ennis-Hill winning the gold medal in the
heptathlon at the
2012 Summer Olympics. In 2013, she became the first Leigh Harrier to claim the individual U11 girls' title in both the South East Lancashire League and the Red Rose League. She ran her 16th consecutive undefeated race two weeks later in the Mid-Lancashire Cross Country League at U11 level. At U13 level, she became
Cheshire and Manchester champion in both the
800 and
1200 m. At the age of 13, Hodgkinson had to limit training after a
mastoidectomy to remove a tumour on her ear, which left her 95% deaf in that ear. She also suffered from
knee issues. The following year, she finished third in the U15 800 m events at both the ESAA English Schools' Championships and England Athletics Championships.
2018–2020 In June 2018, aged 16, Hodgkinson became the England U20 800 m champion. The following month, she won the gold medal at the
European Athletics U18 Championships held in
Győr, Hungary, breaking the championship record in the process with a time of 2:04.84. In August, she won the England U17 title before setting a competition record time of 2:04.89 on way to victory at the (UK) School Games. At the Believe Sports Awards in
Wigan, she was named as the Sports Achiever of the Year. During 2019,
Trevor Painter and
Jenny Meadows began coaching her in Manchester. In February 2020, aged 17, Hodgkinson set the second-fastest female U20 performance ever in the
indoor 800 m at the
Vienna Indoor Classic. She set a European U20 record of 2:01.16 to triumph on her international debut at senior level, just 0.13 s off the world U20 record. She broke
Kirsty Wade's long-standing British U20 record of 2:02.88 set in 1981, and
Aníta Hinriksdóttir's European record for the age group set in 2015 by 0.4 seconds. Later that month, she went on to take the national senior 800 m title at the
British Indoor Championships. The 2020 season was heavily impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic, with the
2020 Summer Olympics postponed until the following year. In September, Hodgkinson claimed the
British outdoor title to become the youngest winner in the competition over 800 m since 1974. She improved her personal best again with a time 2:01.73, when ending her season with a fifth-place finish in
Rovereto, Italy, three days later.
2021: Olympic silver medallist and Diamond League title In Vienna, Hodgkinson became the first British woman to set a world U20 record since
Zola Budd 36 years previously. She won the 800 m for the second consecutive year with a time of 1:59.03. This marked the first time that she had completed the event in under two minutes, and also broke the world indoor U20 record. She shaved two seconds off the previous best set by Ethiopia's
Meskerem Legesse in 2004. Hodgkinson competed at the
2021 European Indoor Championships in
Toruń, Poland.
She became the second youngest British winner in the competition's history (after
400 m runner
Marilyn Neufville in 1970), and also the youngest ever women's 800 m
European indoor champion. In May, Hodgkinson secured victory at the
Golden Spike in
Ostrava, Czechia, recording a sub-two minute mark outdoors for the first time after clocking 1:58.89. She broke by almost a second the UK junior record which had been held by
Charlotte Moore. Her time was also the European junior record, beating
Birte Bruhns' mark of 1:59.17 set in 1988. At the end of June, she secured a place in the
British team for the Tokyo Olympics by defending her title at the
2021 British Athletics Championships. She overcame
Laura Muir and
Jemma Reekie to seal victory. A week later, she set a British U23 record by lowering her personal best to 1:57.51 when finishing fourth at the Stockholm
Diamond League meet. At the
2020 Summer Olympics, Hodgkinson won the silver medal behind the USA's
Athing Mu, taking almost two seconds off her personal best with a time of 1:55.88. Hodgkinson also broke
Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21 in the race, as well as setting new European U20 and U23 records. After the race, Hodgkinson stated that the Olympics' postponement had benefitted her, saying: "If the Olympics had been last year I wouldn't have been here, but suddenly it's given me a year to grow and compete with these girls." in
Brussels.|alt=Hodkinson running down the straight in first place with the rest of the athletes racing behind her On the Diamond League circuit, Hodgkinson came second in
Brussels, and ended the season with victory at the
Zürich final in September, winning the Diamond League 800 m title. Hodgkinson's early athletics career had been funded by her parents, but in 2020, she was not named by
British Athletics as a recipient of £15,000 of lottery funding. Businessman
Barrie Wells, who had previously helped fund 18 athletes to the
2012 London Olympics, stepped in and roughly matched the £15,000 a year that she had missed out on. This allowed Hodgkinson to attend warm-weather training in
Florida. In October 2021, British Athletics announced that Hodgkinson would receive lottery funding.
2022: European champion and world silver medallist At the beginning of the season, Hodgkinson revealed that she was targeting medals at the
World Indoor Championships in March as well as three major outdoor championships in the summer: the
World Championships,
Commonwealth Games and the
European Championships. Hodgkinson said: "It's definitely physically possible to do all four. Mentally, we'll see. The world outdoors is No 1 and I really want to do the Commonwealths, as it is a home Games. With the Europeans we'll see how the body and mind are coping." Hodgkinson opened her athletics year on 19 February with the fastest indoor 800 m performance by a woman in 20 years with 1:57.20, at the
Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. It was the quickest mark since the precise day she was born, when the indoor world record was set by
Jolanda Čeplak. Her time set a new British indoor record, the fastest ever mark by a teenager, and the sixth-fastest indoor mark of all time. In March, Hodgkinson travelled to the World Indoor Championships in
Belgrade. She suffered a
quad injury during her warm-up for the event and was forced to withdraw. in the
US.|alt=Picture showing the moment Mu crossed the finish line a fraction ahead of Hodgkinson On 21 May, Hodgkinson competed at the
Diamond League event in Birmingham, claiming victory in the 800 m. She then had further success in the Diamond League, claiming victories in Eugene, and
Oslo, as well as finishing runner-up behind Kenyan athlete
Mary Moraa in Stockholm. In the 800 m at the
World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Hodgkinson claimed silver after finishing 0.08 s behind Mu. Hodgkinson recorded a season's best time of 1:56.38. Less than two weeks later, at the
Commonwealth Games, she claimed another silver medal, this time finishing behind Moraa. Later in August, she secured her first major senior outdoor gold, winning the
800 m at the European Championships held in
Munich in a time of 1:59.04. She finished half a second ahead of French athlete
Rénelle Lamote who claimed silver. In September, she finished in fifth place at the Zürich Diamond League final. Hodgkinson's time at the Birmingham indoor event earlier in the year made her the world leader for the season with a nearly 1.3-second advantage, while her result from the World Championships final ranked as the second quickest time for the year outdoors.
2023: World silver medallist again to extend her streak of sub-two-minute races to 19.|alt=Picture showing Hodgkinson in action on the athletics track having built an advantage over the chasing pack In January, Hodgkinson set a new world indoor record time in the less frequently run distance of
600 metres with a time of 1:23.41 in
Manchester. She eclipsed
Olga Kotlyarova's record set in 2004 by 0.03 s. She then won three events on the
World Indoor Tour in the 800 m category. She took victories in
Toruń (meet record of 1:57.87),
Liévin in France, and the Tour Final in Birmingham, where she improved her own British indoor record with 1:57.18. She concluded her indoor season with a successful defence of her European 800 m title at the
European Athletics Indoor Championships in
Istanbul. She dedicated the win to her first coach in athletics, Joe Galvin, who had died a few days earlier, saying: "This one is definitely for him and everyone at home. He had a lot of belief in little 10-year-old me." In the
2023 Diamond League, Hodgkinson clinched victory at the
Meeting de Paris in June, breaking her British record by 0.11 s in a time of 1:55.77. She also won the 400 m at the England U23s with a new personal best time of 52.24. The time was also a championship record, eclipsing the mark of 52.43 set by
Christine Ohuruogu in 2005. She then finished second to Moraa in the 800 m at the
Lausanne Diamond League meeting in Switzerland. Having been appointed co-captain of the British team at the
European U23 Championships in
Espoo, Finland, she competed in the
400 m. Hodgkinson went on to secure bronze, clocking a new personal best of 51.76. She later missed the
Anniversary Games Diamond League meeting in London due to illness. At the
World Championships in
Budapest, Hodgkinson passed Mu in the final straight, but could not overhaul Moraa at the finish, ultimately finishing second in
the 800 m with a time of 1:56.34, around 0.3 s separating her from both the champion Moraa (1:56.03) and third-placed Mu (1:56.61). Hodgkinson finished runner-up to Mu in the Eugene Diamond League final, and improved on her own British record with a time of 1:55.19.
2024: Olympic champion Hodgkinson opened her 2024 season on 15 May, running a 400 m personal best time of 51.61 at a meeting in
Savona, Italy. She finished second behind Ireland's
Sharlene Mawdsley. On 25 May, she competed in her first 800 m event of the season at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in
Eugene, Oregon. Hodgkinson overtook Moraa with 150 metres remaining and claimed victory in a world-leading time for the year of 1:55.78. In June, Hodgkinson competed while suffering from illness at the
European Championships in
Rome. She held off
Gabriela Gajanová to retain the title she had won two years previously. In July, at the
Diamond League meeting in London, Hodgkinson finished in first place and also set a new British 800 m record time of 1:54:61. Her time made her the sixth fastest woman in history over the distance. Hodgkinson also triumphed at the
FBK Games in
Hengelo, pulling away from
Prudence Sekgodiso on the final bend to secure the victory in a time of 1:57.36. At the
2024 Summer Olympics, Hodgkinson clinched the gold medal in the
women's 800 m final with a time of 1:56.72.
Tsige Duguma finished second in 1:57.15. Hodgkinson became the third British woman to have won Olympic gold at the distance, and the tenth British woman to win an athletics gold in
the history of the games. A large mural was then painted at
Stevenson Square in Manchester to honour her achievement. On 21 August, she announced she would miss the rest of the season due to injury. At the end of the year, Hodgkinson stated her ambition to break the women's
800 m world record held by
Jarmila Kratochvílová who ran 1:53.28 in 1983.
2025: World Championship bronze medallist In February, Hodgkinson intended to try and break Čeplak's 23-year-old indoor 800 m world record at the Keely Klassic, a new competition named after her, but was forced to withdraw two days prior due to a
hamstring tear. Hodgkinson took part in her first race in over a year at the
Diamond League event in
Silesia on 16 August. She won in a new 800 m world leading time for the year of 1:54.74, which was also her second fastest time ever. Hodgkinson then secured back-to-back victories in the Diamond League with another victory on 20 August in Lausanne. Her time of 1:55.69 was a meeting record. In September, she won a bronze medal in the 800 metres at the
2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo after finishing behind
Lilian Odira and
Georgia Hunter Bell. The following month, she was the 800 m champion at the Athlos meet in New York.
2026: Indoor 800 m world record and World Indoor Champion On 14 February, she improved her own British 800 m record to 1:56.33 at the
British Indoor Championships, before setting a new indoor 800 m world record of 1:54.87, in
Liévin, France, on 19 February 2026. The latter time was just under a second quicker than the previous record set by Čeplak on 3 March 2002, the day of Hodgkinson's birth. The following month, she set a new personal best indoor time of 51.49 in the 400 m in an invitational race in Glasgow. On 22nd March 2026, Hodgkinson won gold in
the 800 m at the
2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships, finishing with a time of 1:55.30 (the second fastest indoor time in history) and a winning margin of 1.34 seconds from Swiss silver-medallist
Audrey Werro. Later that evening, she ran with
Tess McHugh,
Louisa Stoney and
Dina Asher-Smith as part of the British quartet that placed fifth in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay final, with Hogkinson's split time of 50.10 s being the fastest time of the event. ==Personal life==