Kate Richardson-Walsh
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Kate Louise Richardson-Walsh, (''née'' Walsh; born 9 May 1980) is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning English
field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 years.


Early life

Richardson-Walsh was born in
Withington Withington is a suburb of Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it lies from Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Withington has a population of just ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and attended
Priestnall School Priestnall School is a coeducational secondary school in Heaton Mersey, Stockport, England. History The school was established in 1974 by a merger of Fylde Lodge High School, which was located in Priestnall Road, Heaton Mersey, and Stockport Hig ...
in Stockport. At the age of 16 she joined Aquinas College in Stockport because it afforded her more support for her hockey. She graduated from
Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June ...
in 2003 with a 2:1 (BSc Sports Science). At the age of 11 she joined Didsbury Greys Hockey Club in Manchester followed by Hightown Hockey club. Richardson-Walsh was selected to play for the under 16 Great Britain team when she was 14. It took Richardson-Walsh just nine years to go from starting hockey at her school aged 11 to playing for her country at the Sydney Olympic Games.


International career

Richardson-Walsh made both her England and Great Britain debuts in 1999 and has since gone on to play at the full range of international tournaments including four Summer Olympics, four Hockey World Cups and four Commonwealth Games. Between 2013 and 2016, she was elected to the British Olympic Association Athletes' Commission and European Olympic Athlete’s Commissions. In 2003 aged 23 years old, Richardson-Walsh was made captain of the senior GB hockey team, a role she held for a further 13 years until her retirement in 2016. As a defender she won a silver medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in her hometown of Manchester, and bronze at the 2007 EuroHockey Nations Championships. In
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
Summer Olympics, Walsh was hit by a stick in the team's opening match against Japan and suffered a broken jaw, which was expected to end her journey in Olympic games. However, after undergoing surgery and missing just three matches, she returned to play in their penultimate group game against China and captained the team to win the bronze medal. In 2014, Richardson-Walsh captained the team to a disappointing 11th out of 12th place in the World Cup in The Hague.
Glasgow 2014 The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...
marked her fourth Commonwealth Games. She captained the team to a silver medal and was also selected to be Team England's flag bearer for the closing ceremony. Following the 2014 Glasgow games, Richardson-Walsh took a three-month sabbatical from international hockey, before returning at the end of the year and regaining her place in the team (and captaincy) via the development squad. In 2015, Richardson-Walsh captained England to win th
Unibet EuroHockey Championships
against the Netherlands. After the match was drawn, 2–2, the Gold medal was secured in a shoot-out, with England winning 3–1. Richardson-Walsh became the most capped female in Great Britain on Saturday 20 February 2016 during test matches in Australia when she overtook Karen Brown who had 355 caps. In 2016, Richardson-Walsh captained the women’s hockey team to their first gold medal at an Olympics. The team was undefeated throughout the tournament, beating the Netherlands in the final on penalties. Kate Richardson-Walsh was selected to be the Team GB flag bearer at the closing ceremony for the Rio Olympics. After 375 appearances for her country, 19 medals, 49 goals and 13 years as GB and England Captain, Richardson-Walsh confirmed her retirement from International hockey after the Rio Olympic Games.


Domestic hockey career

She played club hockey for
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
in the
Women's England Hockey League The Women's England Hockey League is a field hockey league organised by England Hockey that features women's teams from England. From 2011-2020 it was sponsored by Investec and was referred to as the Investec Women's Hockey League. Format Regula ...
Premier Division for seven years. and has also acted as the women's team assistant coach. In 2016 Richardson-Walsh announced that she, and her wife Helen, would leave Reading Hockey Club to join HC Bloemendaal in the Netherlands after the Olympics. Both Kate and Helen returned to the UK in June 2016 after one season with the club and helping HC Bloemendaal retain their Hoofdklasse status. Kate has also played domestic hockey for; Leicester, Slough, SCHC (Netherlands) and Klein Zwitserland (Netherlands) In December 2017, Richardson-Walsh and her wife Helen both signed for
East Grinstead Hockey Club East Grinstead Hockey Club is a field hockey club based in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. It is one of the most successful clubs in the United Kingdom with National League Outdoor and Indoor honours. It was founded in 1897. The home groun ...
for the Jaffa Super Sixes indoor hockey season.


Post hockey playing career

Following on from her 2016 retirement from International Hockey, Richardson-Walsh has expressed a desire to go into hockey coaching. In July 2018 it was announced that Richardson-Walsh had been appointed as joint Head Coach for Hampstead & Westminster Ladies XI Kate is an athlete ambassador for sports website platform
Pitchero Pitchero (Pitch Hero Ltd) is a sports website company based in Leeds, United Kingdom. Founded in 2007, it provides a website building and hosting service for semi-professional and amateur sports teams and sports leagues in football, rugby unio ...
and endorses Osaka hockey sticks. She currently serves as an ambassador for the Women’s Sport Trust and supports disability hockey as an ambassador for Access Sport. She currently serves as an ambassador for
Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...
. Richardson-Walsh was part of the commentary team for the 2017 Eurohockey championships, along with her wife Helen, which was broadcast on BT Sport. She also provided hockey commentary and analysis for
BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...
and Radio 5 Live at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and analysis for the
2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...
on
BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...
.


Personal life

In 2008, Walsh began a relationship with international teammate Helen Richardson. They married in 2013 and both changed their last names thereafter. Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh made history becoming the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic Gold medal together. and the first married British couple to win Gold together since 1920. In 2017, Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh were both awarded honours, making them the first same-sex married couple to be honoured on the same list. Richardson-Walsh's younger sister Rachel was also capped for England
hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
.


Awards

Richardson-Walsh is three times a winner of the Hockey Writers Club UK Player of the Year award (2003. 2007 and 2012). In 2003 and 2016, she was shortlisted for the FIH World Player of the Year Award. She was named Great Britain Hockey Athlete of the Year in 2007. In 2014, Richardson-Walsh was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University. Richardson-Walsh was appointed
Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(MBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to hockey and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours, also for services to hockey. In 2016, Richardson-Walsh was the first hockey player to be shortlisted for
BBC Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just one, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Several new awards have been ...
. She achieved 6th place out of 16 nominees with 34,604 votes In June 2017, Richardson-Walsh was presented with the highest honour in English Hockey; the England Hockey Member of Honour. The award is the highest accolade that can be bestowed by the Governing Body and is made in recognition of outstanding contribution to England Hockey. Including Richardson-Walsh, there are only six existing Members of Honour.
Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June ...
presented alumna Richardson-Walsh with an Honorary Doctorate in July 2017, recognising her service to the national or international community. Richardson-Walsh was the first British hockey player to be inducted into th
European Hall of Fame
by the EHF. The ceremony took place during the 2017 European Hockey Championships in Holland. Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh were awarded the National Lottery Spirit of Sport Award at the 2017 annual Sports Journalist’s Association (SJA) British Sports Awards.


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson-Walsh, Kate 1980 births Living people English female field hockey players Field hockey players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic field hockey players of Great Britain British female field hockey players Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England People from Withington Olympic medalists in field hockey Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics English LGBT sportspeople LGBT field hockey players Field hockey players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Officers of the Order of the British Empire Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Alumni of Brunel University London HC Bloemendaal players East Grinstead Hockey Club players Reading Hockey Club players Women's England Hockey League players Hampstead & Westminster Hockey Club coaches Lesbian sportswomen