My Life in Hockey: Kate Richardson-Walsh

Hockey Olympic gold medalist Kate Richardson-Walsh shares her memories and inspirations

How I started playing sports

My parents were both physical education teachers and loved sports, so my sister Rachel and I went to most activities. I did a lot of gymnastics and swimming when I was young, and when I went to a local high school, we played hockey, netball and athletics. My physical education teacher was a really enthusiastic hockey player, as was my mother, and they passed on their passion to me. I immediately fell in love with the hockey team and felt that Id found the place I belonged to.

Inspirations

Growing up, there weren’t that many female athletes who appeared on television on a regular basis. So my role model came about every four years during the Olympics. The Barcelona 1992 games were the first I clearly remember. Sally Gunnell won gold in the 400-meter hurdles and the GB women’s hockey team won bronze. The pictures of women standing proudly on the podium of the Olympics were just dreamy for me as a 12-year-old girl. I just remember my thinking: Wow, those women are amazing!

Oddly enough, dropping out of the 15-year-old English junior team was a central point in my life and thus inspiring in its own way. I was at the crossroads of my life and I had to make big choices about what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go.

Although being a professional hockey player was not an option when I grew up, I decided to be the best possible hockey player and tried to keep my state of mind for the rest of my life. There have been many situations in my sports career where complete destruction or failure has begun a new path and personal / team success.

Memories

I am so lucky to have been invited to participate in many amazing events and activities as a result of being an international hockey player. One such occasion was an invitation to Helen and I to the Queens State Banquet for the King and Queen of the Netherlands at Buckingham Palace. We had never had a chance to use our MBE and OBE medals, and we were excited to get them out of the boxes!

We had ignored advice on buying a smaller party medal because we thought marriage never used it honestly. So as we rolled into Buckingham Palace as I drove into the courtyard of the dirty white Kia Rioni Buckingham Palace, we were wearing our huge blingy Honors medals and (honestly) outstretched like a sore thumb.

The only thing at the top of all this was to see the absolute horror on the faces of the King and Queen of the Netherlands when we were introduced during the evening. They could not believe that the royal family had very brazenly rubbed their noses to lose their Dutch hockey gold! Suffice it to say, I’m not sure if to call back!

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