Helen Richardson-Walsh

Midfield maestro Helen Richardson-Walsh is one of the most experienced members of the GB women’s team. Having started her international career in 1999 at the age of 17, she became the youngest ever woman to represent GB hockey at an Olympics in Sydney the following year and has competed at four Olympic Games. As part of the senior leadership group, she played a central role in propelling the women’s game to victory on the world stage in Rio 2016. As she stepped onto the podium alongside her teammate and wife, GB captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, they also entered Olympic history as the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing for the same team.

Over the course of her 17-year international career, Richardson-Walsh has amassed a Commonwealth bronze and two silvers, a bronze at London 2012, and the European Championship title in 2015, before finally reaching the pinnacle of her sport as part of the celebrated GB hockey team that beat the Netherlands in Rio to win her gold medal. Richardson-Walsh was one of only two players to score during a tense penalty shootout and is recognized at the world level as one of the best in the business – shortlisted for the World Player of the Year Award and named in the FIH World All Stars Team three times.

Richardson-Walsh’s career was threatened at the age of just 23 after she suffered two ruptured discs in her back within 11 months. With two rounds of back surgery and three rounds of surgery on her ankle, consultants warned that it was unlikely she would ever play competitive hockey again. Forced to spend two years out of the game, she missed the World Cup in 2014 and had to watch from home as her wife and teammates struggled. This experience only compounded the feeling that she had lost the chance to achieve a goal to which she had dedicated her life and worked incredibly hard towards for the past fifteen years. Despite these challenges, she managed to return to the team after a two-year absence and played a key role in a leadership turnaround at GB women’s hockey. Today, years on from her first Olympic Games, and having stepped down from international duty with almost 300 caps, Richardson-Walsh has been awarded an MBE for services to hockey and continues to play at club level in the UK. She also serves as an ambassador for UN Women, Access Sport, as an Athlete Role Model for the Youth Olympic Games, and sits on the Education and Development committees of the European Hockey Federation. Inspired by her experience in battling back from the doubts of her injury and her experience of elite performance and winning teams, she has completed a degree in psychology. Most recently, she has embarked on a master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and joined Tottenham Hotspur Women's football team as Performance Psychologist. She is currently working as a freelance performance coach and is a patron of Tottenham’s LGBT fan club, The Proud Lilywhites.