Keely Hodgkinson has revealed that meeting Kim Kardashian at Paris Fashion Week has helped her ahead of her new world record attempt tonight.
The Olympic champion and BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner, 23, is aiming to smash the indoor 800m world record in Lievin, France on Thursday, just days after setting a new British record in Birmingham last weekend.
The current record is held by former Slovenian athlete Jolanda Ceplak, who stormed the 800m event in just 1:55.82 on March 3, 2002 – ironically on the same day Hodgkinson was born.
Permitted to travel to Paris Fashion Week ahead of Thursday’s World Indoor Tour leg in Lievin, Hodgkinson linked up with Kim K and had ‘a lot of fun’ – an experience she believes has proved crucial to her form, as reported by The Sun.
Explaining how important it is to have fun away from the track, she said: ‘I’m really big on balance. Balance is definitely my thing. My internal happiness comes before anything else.
‘So when my coach said I could take a trip to Paris to meet Kim Kardashian, I wasn’t going to turn that down, and we had a great time. It was a lot of fun.
Keely Hodgkinson looked incredible as she mingled with Kim Kardashian this month
Hodgkinson revealed that she had ‘a lot of fun’ with Kim at Paris Fashion Week
Hodgkinson will attempt to smash a new world record in the indoor 800m tonight
‘The happier I am off the track, I bring that same energy to the track. I just am much better at training. I’m much better at racing.
‘I look forward to things more. And I just think getting that balance is obviously really important.’
Despite enduring an injury-hit 2025 after her triumphant gold at the Paris Olympics, Hodgkinson is enjoying the form of her life.
Admitting her impressive display in Birmingham last weekend did not come as a shock, the 23-year-old athlete added: ‘I don’t want to put a time limit on what I think I can do but I didn’t mean to go that fast, which shows I’m in a really good place.
‘We set out just trying to practice that first 200 and I saw the time at 400 and 600 and thought, “Oh, we’ll just keep going and end up with a really good time here”.
‘But I’m not totally surprised with that time. I know I’m capable of things like that. So it’s just like, how fast can we really go? And hopefully we can find out.’
