by Stuart Weir
Phoebe Gill is out for the season, by Stuart Weir
Phoebe Gill was the young athlete of the year in Britain in 2024. Few people had heard of Phoebe before May last year, when she ran in Belfast at the Irish Milers Meeting, recording a time of 1:57.86. Before the 2024 summer was over, she took advantage of Keely Hodgkinson’s absence to win the GB championship and secure her ticket for Paris, where she ran 1:58.83 in the prelim and 1:58.47 in the Olympic semi-final – all at the age of 17.
Sadly, Phoebe was unable to defend her title at the 2025 GB championships, having been diagnosed with a fibula stress fracture back in February. She took the heartbreaking but sensible decision not to compete this summer. She explained further that “it has taken time to recover due to various circumstances” and “it has been a long journey, but I’m looking forward to giving my body a proper break.”
Just over a year ago, on a press point organized by British Athletics, just before the Olympics, I had the opportunity to ask her about how a year in the lower sixth (the penultimate year at high school, studying biology, chemistry, and maths) had changed when she realized she was on course for the Olympics. She told me, “I would say it’s changed this year, but I think school’s been good at grounding me in between the hectic things that have been going on. Going to a maths class on the Monday morning after winning the British Champs was a grounding experience, and going to work experience – back at my old primary school helping out with the reception class the week after – was good for me, because I think it’s easy to get carried away with this sort of thing. So, I wouldn’t say my life feels too different, but I know that coming up to Paris now, I think things are going to change for the better. I’m getting used to all this media attention and all these big races, and speaking to these legends in sports. So it’s been different, but in a good way”.
She was equally down to earth talking about that PR in Belfast: “I would say that I knew that I could get a personal best in Belfast because I had just done a personal best in the 1500, so I knew I was in good form, but I was not expecting to come away from that race with a 4 second PR and I remember crying on the plane back because going sub two had been such a dream of mine for so long – like it is to all 800 meter athletes and to think that I had done that in that race, after all this stressful lead up to it, was just it was such a nice feeling that my winter training had gone well and it was the most indescribable thing. I was just so happy”.
When double Olympic champion at middle distance, Kelly Holmes, sent her a message on Instagram, Phoebe admitted to “screaming in the bathroom. I was in shock, and I remember playing it; I was on the verge of tears. And I sent one back and I’ve met her in person now, so it’s been very crazy to be meeting all my idols that I’ve been watching on the TV for so long”. She took the Olympics in her stride, “seeing my face on the screen, I was trying my best not to cry”.
Of her semi-final, where she finished fourth, she said: “I’m very emotional afterwards, and that is not from being sad – that’s from being proud of myself! It’s a whirlwind of emotions coming into the Games and performing in front of that many people. I’m not used to that. “Walking through the call room, there was a door slightly open and you can see the 1000s of people in the stands – it can be quite intimidating. But to go out there and give it my all on that track. I’m just so happy to get through one round and to say that I’m an Olympian now! “I hope to make LA in 2028. I’ll know what to expect. It’s opened a whole new door for me, competing against athletes I used to watch on TV for so long. I feel so mature in myself, and I’m so happy that I was able to face it and not back out. Onwards and upwards from here”.
Losing the opportunity to go to Tokyo, is a disappointment but she is only 18 with many more opportunities ahead.
photo: British Olympic Association
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