Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson says an MRI scan has uncovered an "abnormality" in her hamstring. Following a suspected tear last year, Hodgkinson had a scan which revealed she has a "split" hamstring, giving her two tendons instead of one. The 24-year-old is still learning how to manage the anomaly, which allows her to continue running when one of the tendons is torn but may also make her more susceptible to breakdowns. Following her second-place finish to Swiss Audrey Werro in the 800m final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September, Hodgkinson announced she had sustained another hamstring tear at the European Championships in Birmingham a few weeks earlier.

"My body is quite literally built differently," said Hodgkinson. "Where most people have one tendon, mine is split - I have two - and we're trying to figure out if it's a strength or a weakness. So when one of them tore, I still had another one because it's split. In Birmingham, it didn't affect me during the race, but I could feel something wasn't quite right."

Hodgkinson has endured two injury-plagued seasons since winning Olympic gold in Paris in 2024. She set a new indoor 800m world record in February 2026 before winning gold at the World Indoor Championships a month later, but has been unable to replicate that form outdoors, suffering three defeats by Werro. Hodgkinson will end her 2026 season in London at the all-female Athlos event, launched by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, on Friday.