Hodgkinson powers to Athlos victory in cutting-edge speed suit

Keely Hodgkinson stepped onto the stage at StoneX Stadium in north London wearing something no elite runner had worn in competition before—a custom-made full-body speed suit, all black and aerodynamic, with an open back and a hood designed to let her ponytail flow free. The crowd erupted. She had spent a year developing the outfit with designers, waiting for the right moment to debut it. That moment came on a Friday night in September at Athlos, an all-female athletics meet that had traveled outside New York for the first time, bringing with it red carpets, a live trackside DJ, and prize money that felt more like a music festival than a track meet.

Hodgkinson's 800-meter race was decisive. She burst clear on the back straight and crossed the line in one minute 56.40 seconds, her first major victory since the London Diamond League in July. The speed suit—reminiscent of the one Cathy Freeman wore to Olympic gold in 2000, but updated with colour-changing 3D-printed nodes designed to reduce drag—had worked. She was presented with a silver Tiffany & Co crown instead of a medal, along with $65,000 in prize money. "This has been like a year in the making," she told BBC Sport. "It's a mixture of fashion and speed and science all coming together for maybe the future of athletics."

The 24-year-old had earned the moment. She is an Olympic champion, and this year she had won the world indoor 800m title and shattered a 24-year-old world record. But the season had also brought injury—a fall during a cool-down run in July, then a hamstring problem that resurfaced at the European Championships. She finished second to Swiss runner Audrey Werro at both the European Championships and the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship. The crown and the victory at Athlos felt like a reset, a way to end a complicated year on her own terms.

Athlos itself was the creation of Alexis Ohanian, Reddit's co-founder and husband of tennis champion Serena Williams. The event was structured around spectacle as much as sport: seven disciplines, six athletes per event, prize money cascading down through all finishing positions, a total purse of $1.05 million for the night. American sprinters Gabby Thomas and Sha'Carri Richardson won their races. Richardson clocked 10.80 seconds in the 100 meters. Thomas took the 200 meters in 22.13 seconds. Marileidy Paulino, the Olympic 400-meter champion from the Dominican Republic, won her race in 48.73 seconds. The athletes had arrived on a red carpet. Several would go on to participate in London Fashion Week. Georgia Hunter Bell, Hodgkinson's training partner, finished second in the mile to Poland's Klaudia Kazimierska, who edged her in 4:19.43.

Ohanian watched from trackside with Williams and their children, alongside other celebrities and athletes. He has been explicit about his long-term vision: to transform Athlos into a global season-long league. The New York edition scheduled for October 2026 was cancelled after consultation with athletes exhausted from a long season that now includes the Olympics, World Championships, and the newly created World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Instead, Ohanian is working to align Athlos with the global athletics calendar beginning in 2027, though how that integration will function remains unclear. The Diamond League already runs from May through September. The calendar is crowded.

What made Athlos distinct was not just the money or the fashion—it was the permission it gave athletes to be more than competitors. Hodgkinson spoke about the honour of being chosen to debut the speed suit. Hunter Bell emerged from a crowd of screaming children who called her their idol, then walked the red carpet saying she felt "valued." The atmosphere was part nightclub, part championship meet. One spectator who had attended 27 world championships and five Olympics told a reporter he was skeptical but loved it. A parent whose daughter trains at the stadium called it "remarkable" and "inspirational."

Ohanian has also offered equity stakes to athletes who compete in Athlos events, betting that if the league succeeds, they will share in its growth. "I would have loved to have had this when I was younger," Hodgkinson said. "Hopefully the youngsters can see this and have their time one day." The event had been designed partly as a corrective—a response to the gap between the attention women's athletics receives during Olympic years and the relative invisibility of the sport in the years between. It came, too, in the wake of controversy over a sports betting advertisement that many female athletes had publicly criticized. Ohanian said he wanted Friday's event to redirect focus to "the actual athletes."

The London debut delivered on its promise to be different. Whether Athlos can sustain that difference as it scales, and how it will fit into an already complex global calendar, remains to be determined. But on this night, in a packed stadium with a DJ spinning tracks and a British Olympic champion wearing the future of athletic wear, the experiment felt alive.