The trademark blonde ponytail was well in evidence as Keely Hodgkinson touched down in New York City ahead of the all-female Athlos athletics event last week.
But it was a notably different Hodgkinson who took to Instagram on Monday after ditching her usual hair colour in a favour of deep chocolate brown curls.
The athlete, 23, showed off the dramatic new look in a series of social media photos, shortly after beating rival and compatriot Georgia Hunter-Bell in the 800 metre sprint.
Captioning the headshots, which capture her hair transformation from various angles, she wrote: ‘New York made me do it.’
Three days earlier, the typically blonde Hodgkinson had cruised to a first-place finish with a time of one minute 56.53 seconds at an all-women’s meeting, and was duly rewarded with the spoils of her victory by tennis legend Serena Williams.
Athlos is the brainchild of Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and launched last year in a bid to provide female athletics stars with a two-day blockbuster meeting that rewards them with one of the biggest pay-pots in the sport.
It was a notably different Keely Hodgkinson who took to Instagram on Monday after ditching her usual hair colour in a favour of deep chocolate brown curls
Hodgkinson showed off her dramatic new look from a series of different angles on social media
Among the innovations is She Jumps Times Square, the long jump event held in the very centre of Manhattan, a performance by Ciara, and instead of medals, crowns custom made by Tiffany & Co.
The crowns are estimated to be worth a staggering $25,000 (£18,721), and as per Ohanian, took ten weeks and 25 hours of labour to create.
As well as their trophies, the winners will take home $60,000 (£44,931), with second-place stars making $25,000 (£18,721), third $10,000 (£7,488), fourth $8,000 (£5,990), fifth $5,000 (£3,744), and sixth place wins $2,500 (£1,872).
If a world record is set at the event, the athlete would be handed a mammoth bonus worth $250,000 ($187,213).
The event, which describes itself as ‘athlete-first’, also intends to hand all competitors a portion of 10 per cent worth of its ticket, broadcast, and sponsorship revenue.
Some of the other boldfaced names that have signed up to take part this year include Amy Hunt, Faith Kipyegon, Brittany Brown, and Tara Davis-Woodhall.
‘I’ve barely raced this season so it was probably less of a struggle for me to go out there and want to give it something,’ said Hodgkinson after claiming her crown.
‘The atmosphere out there is crazy so it was really, really fun.’
The athlete showed off her new look after beating rival and compatriot Georgia Hunter-Bell in the 800 metre sprint
Three days earlier, the typically blonde Hodgkinson was duly rewarded with the spoils of her victory by tennis legend Serena Williams
But Hodgkinson might not have be assured of such a warm reception ahead of her run-out on Friday evening, after getting herself into hot water with comments made about Americans on social media last month.
In a TikTok video published to TikTok in the wake of her bronze medal in Japan, she filmed herself rolling her eyes and sipping on a drink to the sound of a woman saying, ‘And now I want to sit back and relax and enjoy my evening, when all of a sudden, I hear this agitating, grating voice.’
Hodgkinson captioned the video: ‘When there are Americans in the restaurant’ and ‘They’re really the loudest in the room’.
Meanwhile, her fellow Olympic gold medallist, for 100m hurdles, Masai Russell, who is American, commented: ‘Hey, not too much!’
Hodgkinson responded, ‘Y’all are the most fun’.
The crowns are estimated to be worth a staggering $25,000 (£18,721), and apparently took ten weeks and 25 hours of labour to create
But the crown was off on Monday evening as Hodgkinson showed off her brown hair