KEELY Hodgkinson was the most-watched athlete on the BBC's record-breaking coverage of the Paris Olympic Games.

According to the BBC, the Paris Olympics was streamed a record breaking 218 million times online, more than doubling the 104 million streams recorded during the Tokyo Games three years ago.

With many people enjoying the sport on BBC iPlayer, more than 12 million people logged into their account to watch the action.

BBC TV also enjoyed consistently high viewing figures, with a peak audience of over six million viewers on 14 separate days. More than 36 million people are reported to have watched the Games live on TV, equivalent to almost 60 percent of the entire UK population.

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With such high viewing figures for the BBC's coverage of 32 Olympic sports, the most watched event was the 800m women's final.

More than 9 million people saw the Atherton-based Keely Hodgkinson win the gold medal across BBC One and BBC iPlayer. 

As Keely's historic victory made her just the third British woman to win the 800m Olympic 800m event, the 22-year-old has been enjoying a well-earned holiday with her family in Marbella.

And with the former Leigh Harrier's gold medal race celebrated far and wide, particularly in the towns across the borough, there have been growing calls to commemorate the Atherton runner in her hometown.

With new murals of Keely popping up in Manchester, adding to her hometown artwork in Atherton, the former Fred Longworth student is the favourite for this year's BBC 'Sports Personality of the Year'.

She now has her sights on breaking Jarmila Kratochvilova's 41-year-old 800m record time of 1:53:28.