Just 19, she seemed to have the athletics world at her feet. But then came the crash, as her success plunged her into depression. How could she ever hit such heights again, she began thinking.
Well, after successive World silvers, winning gold in Paris this summer could be the answer. And the 22-year-old has already planned how she would celebrate taking the title – by buying her dream car, a beige Porsche.
Keely almost quit athletics aged 15 but was cajoled back on to the track by her dad Dean, and the promise of a new pair of snazzy shoes. And the Wigan-born track star admits she found the aftermath of her Tokyo breakthrough tough to deal with.
She says: “I didn’t realise how much the Olympic comedown was actually really a big thing. The best way I can explain it would be I was 19, I had such a big high. Did I think it was going to happen at 19? Absolutely not. But it just But I feel like that gave me such a high that when I came down from that, it was almost like a lot of the other things that you used to get a high from, whether that be like going out with your friends or this and that, just weren’t that high any more.
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