Following years of heartbreak and a significant personal setback, Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson finally received her crowning glory.
Hodgkinson, 22, delivered on all fronts to win gold during Tuesday morning’s 800m women’s final at an awe-struck Stade de France, ahead of Ethopia’s Tsige Duguma and Mary Moraa of Kenya.
At first glance, this result may be like any other race to some.
However, the road for this talented athlete, who hails from northern England, has been anything but easy.
Over the past few years, Hodgkinson has been the perennial bridesmaid in major 800m finals, finishing second at both the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
She also finished second at the world championships between 2022 and 2023 in the US and Hungary.
During her teenage years, Hodgkinson briefly had to stop running, as doctors found a non-cancerous tumour when she was 13, which had been growing for 10 years.
It crushed through her hearing bones and left her partially deaf in one ear. The tumour was operated on and subsequently removed.
Duguma made waves early in the final, crossing across the entire field from her extreme wide position during the early stages, to lead heading into the home turn for the first time.
Once the field got the bell, Hodgkinson, the pre-race favourite, made her move to the front and stayed there.
Despite Moraa throwing down the gauntlet briefly with less than 100m to run, Hodgkinson found another gear and sprinted clear, ensuring she became the first British woman since Kelly Holmes at Athens 2004 to win gold in the women’s 800m final.
Another athlete who won many hearts was champion Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, who broke his own world record in the men’s final.
Having already secured gold with his effortless 6m vault, the Swede decided to have some fun, ride his luck, and create history.
Duplantis’ final effort of 6.25m beat his previous mark of 6.24m, which he set in April this year.
Sam Kendricks of the US and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis joined him on the podium with silver and bronze.
Overall Medal tally (Tuesday, 6am WST)
China (21 gold, 18 silver and 14 bronze) leads the medal table, with the US (20 gold, 30 silver and 28 bronze) in second. Australia (13 gold, 11 silver and eight bronze) is in third.
Artistic gymnastics – There was a major upset in the women’s floor exercise final, with American sensation Simone Biles upstaged by Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade in her pursuit of final gold medal, ending her Paris commitments with a silver medal.
Elsewhere, Shinnosuke Oka took out the men’s horizontal bar final ahead of Colombian Angel Barajas. Both Boheng Zhang and Chia-Hung Tang, of China and Chinese-Tapei respectively, shared bronze.
Athletics – With her fourth throw of 69.5m, Valarie Allman of the US won gold in the women’s discus in a highly entertaining final.
There was intense drama in the later stages of the women’s 5000m final, with a brief altercation between Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon at the head of the field.
Both runners yelled at each other, which was coupled by some pushing and shoving in a bid to gain an edge.
However this exchange appeared to unsettle Tsegay, who fell back to ninth by the end of the race.
Kipyegon finished with silver after being outsprinted in the final 90m by compatriot Beatrice Chebet.
In the women’s pole vault, Busselton born Nina Kennedy qualified for the final, vaulting twice. Her best effort was 4.55m.
Badminton – Se Young An of South Korea defeated China’s Bing Jiao He in the women singles gold medal match 21-13, 21-16.
Things were more clear-cut in the men’s singles gold medal match, with Denmark’s Viktor Axelson convincingly seeing off Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-11, 21-11.
3x3 Basketball – A shot as time expired from Worthy de Jong ensured the Netherlands won gold in the men’s 3x3 basketball competition, 18-17 against host nation France in overtime.
The match finished 16-all at the end of regulation.
In the women’s competition, Germany pipped Spain 17-16 in the gold medal game, while the US won bronze, 16-13, against their northern neighbours Canada.
It was a remarkable tournament for the US women. At one point, they were on the bottom of the pile during the pool standings, after losing three of their opening four games.
Basketball – The men’s quarter final match ups have been confirmed, with the Boomers taking on Serbia at 8.30pm on Tuesday night in Lille.
The basketball world will also likely keep a close eye on the Wednesday morning quarter final at 3.30am between Brazil and US, given the NBA power at Team USA’s disposal.
On Wednesday at 5pm, Australia will also take on Serbia in the women’s quarter finals. In the early hours of Thursday morning, the US will be aiming for its 59th consecutive Olympic victory, when they take on surprise packets Nigeria – which prior to Paris, had not won a women’s basketball match at Olympic level in 20 years.
Canoe slalom – Noemie Fox – sister of Australian fan favourite Jess – claimed line honours in the women’s kayak cross final ahead of Angele Hug of France and Great Britain’s Kimberley Woods.
Post-event, Fox was joined by both Jess and mother Myriam, who both swam out to embrace her.
Diving – Australian duo Melissa Wu and Ellie Cole qualified for the women’s 10m platform final.
Football – Purists are in for a treat, with France locking horns with Spain in the men’s final on Saturday morning.
Juanlu Sanchez secured an 85th minute winner for Spain during its 2-1 semifinal win over Morocco in Marseille, while ‘Les Bleus’ came from 1-0 down to defeat Egypt 3-1 in extra time.
The match finished 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes, with the hosts scoring twice in extra time through Jean-Philippe Mateta and Michael Olise.
Hockey – Australia’s hopes of returning home from Paris with a medal of any colour in both men’s and women’s competition are over.
With four wins from five games on top of Pool B, hopes were high for the Hockeyroos in their quarter final against China, which qualified for the knockout stage despite losing three games during the round-robin phase.
Surely, this would be the moment where the Hockeyroos’ dreaded quarter final curse would be lifted.
However, these records meant little on Monday afternoon at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, with the Chinese prevailing 3-2.
Despite scoring first courtesy of Alice Arnott inside the opening 10 minutes, China’s reply was swift, equalising a minute later through Ning Ma.
Although they appeared to be on the end of a handful of controversial decisions, the Hockeyroos did have multiple opportunities to equalise in the closing stages of play.
It was also a sad end for stalwarts Renee Taylor and Jane Claxton, who both played their final international matches.
Monday’s defeat was sixth consecutive occasion that the Hockeyroos have bowed out in an Olympic quarter final.
The highly-fancied Netherlands booked their ticket into the semis with a 3-1 victory over Great Britain, while Belgium took care of Spain 2-0.
For the Brits, it will be the first time they will return home without a women’s hockey medal since 2008 in Beijing.
It took nerves of steel, but Argentina also joined them, edging out Germany 2-0 in a shoot-out, after the match ended 1-all at full-time.
Shooting – China dominated the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol final, with Yuehong Li and Xinjie Wang collecting gold and bronze.
Nestled between them was South Korea’s Yeongjae Cho.
Surfing – Margaret River’s Jack Robinson is through to the gold medal match on Tuesday morning in Tahiti, following his victory over Brazilian Gabriel Medina in their semifinal.
He will take on France’s Kauli Vaast, a Tahiti local.
Water Polo – Australia’s men’s water polo team advanced to the quarter finals, despite going down 14-13 to Japan in their final pool match on Monday night.
