In the very beginning, every kid runs for fun. But if you stick at it, then soon enough you need another reason. Everyone of the eight women in the Olympic 800m final had their own. For the USA’s Juliette Whitaker, it was because her parents were track athletes themselves; for France’s Rénelle Lamote, it was because her PE teacher made her do it; for Kenya’s Mary Moraa, it was simply how she got to school and back again; and for Keely Hodgkinson, born in Atherton, it was simply that she wanted to do whatever she could best win at.
Hodgkinson would have been a swimmer, and a good one, if her parents hadn’t persuaded her that she would have a better chance as a runner. It was all the reason she needed to switch.
