Keely Hodgkinson‘s team has admitted her all-black Nike catsuit is a ‘statement piece’ but insists the outfit is not a gimmick and can help her run faster.
The Olympic 800m champion debuted the suit at the all-female Athlos meet last month in London.
Hodgkinson’s suit has a tight hood over her head with a gap for her ponytail and covers her in the sleek material from palms to ankles – except for her almost entirely bare back – and covered in strategically placed, small iridescent spikes.
The British star admitted following the race, which she won in one minute and 56.40 seconds, that she wanted to feel ‘a little bit sexy’ while wearing the suit.
Hodgkinson’s coach Jenny Meadows has now revealed that Hodgkinson, who she described as a ‘fashion icon’, had first revealed the suit to her and her husband and fellow coach Trevor Painter at the start of the year in South Africa.
‘Nike had been speaking to Keely about the suit, Keely is an innovator herself. She’s always wanted to do things differently, she’s a big lover of fashion,’ Meadows told Athletics Weekly.
Keely Hodgkinson’s team have admitted her all-black Nike catsuit is a ‘statement piece’ but insisted the outfit is not a gimmick
Hodgkinson reportedly claimed it felt like she was ‘wearing nothing’ while running in the catsuit
The Olympic 800 metres champion wore the suit for the first time at the all-female Athlos meet last month in London.
‘She shouted over: “Trev and Jen. What do you think of this?”
‘My initial reaction was like: “Oh, you’ve got to be brave to wear that”. And Trevor was kind of like: “Yeah, you look Catwoman. Go for it. It’s so you”.
‘Nike were so respectful of us as coaches because they obviously wanted us to be really, really comfortable with it.
‘Because at the end of the day, we think about performance and it’s not just what you look like.
‘You’ve got to think: Is it faster or is it just a gimmick?
‘You’ve actually got to walk out in front of an audience the first time and you’ve got to win in that thing. It’s a statement piece.’
Hodgkinson initially planned to wear the suit at the London leg of the Diamond League, but opted to delay the unveiling after suffering a knee injury in a fall in the build-up to the event.
The star had tested the suit in the United States and believed it had helped her to move despite inflammation.
Hodgkinson said post-race that she wanted to feel ‘a little bit sexy’ while wearing the suit
Keely Hodgkinson will not be allowed to wear her all-black Nike catsuit at the Olympics in 2028
‘She was literally like: “Guys in this speed suit, I can run”,’ Meadows said.
‘She says it feels like she’s not wearing anything. She says: ‘Honestly, it feels just so light. I can flow.’
The one-of-a-kind super suit, which seemingly takes inspiration from Cathy Freeman’s iconic Sydney 2000 number, was engineered by Nike specifically for Hodgkinson.
When asked if she and all her competitors will be wearing the style in LA in two years’ time, Hodgkinson gave an answer that suggested it could be a possibility.
‘We might know some things that people don’t,’ Hodgkinson said last month. ‘It was a test out there. This is not something we haven’t seen before.’
Hodgkinson, though, will be unable to wear the Nike gear, due to Team GB’s partnership with Adidas which spans back to the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics.
British athletes are required to wear the team racing kit when competing for the nation at the Games. ‘Technical’ kit, such as running spikes, are an exception to the rule.
If Nike does roll out the full-body ‘Zero-Distraction Speed Suit’ to its other athletes, and World Athletics ratifies it for use at the Olympics, then Hodgkinson may indeed watch her competitors take to the track in the eye-catching black catsuit she brought back to life. But she wouldn’t be able to race them in it.
