Samantha Quek
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Samantha Ann Quek,
MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...
(born 18 October 1988) is an English former
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, and television personality. She played as a defender for both the
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
teams, wearing squad number 13, and won gold as part of the British team at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Quek has presented various television sports shows, including
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
on Channel 5, field hockey 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 ...
, and football for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
and
LFC TV LFCTV (Liverpool F.C. TV) is the dedicated official channel for English football club Liverpool F.C. which launched on 20 September 2007. It was formerly offered as part of the Setanta Sports package, but is currently a stand-alone channel. The ...
. She has appeared as a contestant on shows including '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2016 and ''
Celebrity Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2 ...
'' in 2020, where she reached the final three. In 2021, Quek became a team captain on the
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
sports panel show, ''
Question of Sport ''Question of Sport'' (previously ''A Question of Sport'') is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast onl ...
''.


Early life

Quek was born on 18 October 1988 at Mill Road Hospital, Liverpool, to an English mother, Marilyn Quek (née Higgins), and
Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, Ind ...
Chinese father, Albert Quek. She has a twin brother. The family moved from Coniston Street in Liverpool to the suburb of
West Derby West Derby ( ) is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located East of the city and is also a Liverpool City Council ward. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,382. History West Derby Mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'', Wes ...
when she was about a month old, and to the
Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to ...
when she was five. She attended Hillside Primary School in Wirral for a year before moving to
Birkenhead High School Birkenhead High School Academy is an all-ability state funded girls' Academy in Birkenhead, Wirral. Introduction Birkenhead High School was the main Wirral private girls' school, but in 2010 became a non-fee paying Academy. It remains a member ...
and going on to sixth form at
Calday Grange Grammar School Calday Grange Grammar School (abbreviated to CGGS; also known as Calday Grange, Calday Grammar or simply Calday due to the difference in spelling to the nearby village of Caldy) is a non-denominational, academically selective grammar school, f ...
in
West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, to the north-east lies Hoylake, to the east Grange ...
. She then studied at
Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The univ ...
, where she earned a BSc (Hons) in Sport & Exercise Science. Quek started playing hockey whilst at Birkenhead High School, and attended trials for the Wirral under-12 team. She was selected to play for Wirral County at the Merseyside Youth Games, and the team won the tournament. She was selected again the following year, when the team was victorious once more. She then joined a team called Mini Panthers, where she was coached by the team organiser Peter Cartmel, who had earlier selected her for the Wirral County team.


Career


Hockey career

Quek played as a defender and went on to represent both the
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
teams, wearing squad number 13. In 2005, Quek was part of the England team that won the Girl's (Under-18s) Four Nations Invitational Tournament by defeating Holland on penalties after a 1–1 draw in the final. She won gold as part of the Great Britain Team for the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival. She was also part of the team that were runners-up to Germany at the 2006
Women's EuroHockey Junior Championship The Women's EuroHockey U21 Championship is a women's international under-21 field hockey tournament organized by the European Hockey Federation. The tournament has been held since 1977 and serves as a qualification tournament for the Women's FIH H ...
. She won her first Great Britain international cap, aged 19 and whilst still at university, featuring in a goalless draw against
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
2007. She made her
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
debut the following year. She was not selected for the Great Britain squad for the London 2012 Olympic Games, but did play for England at the
2013 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship The 2013 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship was the 11th edition of the women's field hockey championship organised by the European Hockey Federation. It was held from 17 August to 24 August 2013 in Boom, Belgium. Germany defeated England in ...
, at the
2014 Women's Hockey World Cup The 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup was the 13th edition of the Women's Hockey World Cup field hockey tournament. It was held from 31 May to 14 June 2014 at the Kyocera Stadion in The Hague, Netherlands. simultaneously with the men's tournament. ...
(where the England team finished eleventh of twelve, their worst-ever placing), and at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where the team won silver. In the absence of
Kate Richardson-Walsh Kate Louise Richardson-Walsh, (''née'' Walsh; born 9 May 1980) is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning English field hockey player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 yea ...
, Quek captained the England team during the 2014 Champions Trophy in
Mendoza, Argentina Mendoza (, ), officially the City of Mendoza ( es, Ciudad de Mendoza) is the capital of the province of Mendoza in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern si ...
. She played in every game of the tournament despite, unknown to Quek at the time, breaking two ribs on her right side in their opening game. Quek was also part of the England hockey team who won gold at the European Championships in August 2015 in London. She won Man of the Match in the final against the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, who were reigning world and Olympic champions at the time. In August 2016, Quek competed in the Rio Olympic Games. In the group stage, the team won all five of their matches, defeating Australia 2–1,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
3–0,
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
3–2, Japan 2–0 and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
2–1. A 3–1 quarter-final win over
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
and a 3–0 defeat of
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
saw Great Britain reach the final. The team defeated the Netherlands on penalties after a 3–3 draw, winning the first women's hockey gold medal in the Olympics for Great Britain. Quek won her 50th cap for Great Britain during the competition, taking her to more than 125 combined for both England and Great Britain. In September 2016, a group of Russian hackers calling themselves " Fancy Bears" hacked into the WADA database and revealed that Quek, along with many of her fellow Team GB members, had been granted a
Therapeutic Use Exemption A therapeutic use exemption (TUE), also known as a temporary use exemption, is a term created in 1991 and refers to an official medical document. The document gives an athlete permission to take a medication listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency ...
(TUE) for various medical prescriptions. Her TUE specifically related to the use of an
inhaler An inhaler (also known as a puffer, pump or allergy spray) is a medical device used for delivering medicines into the lungs through the work of a person's breathing. This allows medicines to be delivered to and absorbed in the lungs, which prov ...
in 2008, when she was a teenager. She responded to the leak, stating that not only had she operated within all sporting guidelines, but that she was primarily concerned that the nature of these hacks could stigmatise the future use of TUEs to the detriment of future athletes, describing TUEs as "potentially life-saving practices". The hacks have since been widely discredited by numerous industry professionals and worldwide media outlets.


Potential football career

Quek was signed to
Tranmere Rovers F.C. Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...
as a junior. She revealed in an interview with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' that she had to make the choice at the age of 16 between pursuing a professional career in hockey or football, as splitting her time between the two sports was hindering her progress in both. She elected to pursue a career in hockey. On 23 March 2018, Quek was selected to play in an All-Stars team versus
FA People's Cup The FA People's Cup is an annual English association football tournament organised by The Football Association. The first installment of the tournament, ran in partnership with the British Broadcasting Corporation's ''"Get Inspired"'' campaign took ...
challengers in a 12-hour fundraising match for
Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educat ...
. She was offered a trial with the Liverpool Ladies
FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features ...
team by their manager Vicky Jepson, but had not taken the offer up as of April 2020.


Media appearances and current work

In May 2016, Quek appeared with her husband Tom Mairs on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
's game show ''
For What It's Worth "For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)" (often referred to as simply "For What It's Worth") is a song written by Stephen Stills. Performed by Buffalo Springfield, it was recorded on December 5, 1966, released as a single on Atco Reco ...
'', where they won the show's jackpot of £2,500. A few months later, in November, she took part in the sixteenth series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'' She made it to the final four before being voted out on the penultimate day and finishing in fourth place. In March 2017, Quek appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV sports panel game show '' Play to the Whistle'' and BBC's ''
A Question of Sport ''Question of Sport'' (previously ''A Question of Sport'') is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast on ...
''. She also took part in a celebrity edition of '' The Chase'', and appeared alongside
Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...
in Series 11 of ''Pointless Celebrities''. Quek has been a presenter on sports shows, including for ''The NFL Show'',
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
on Channel 5, field hockey 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 ...
, and football for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
and
LFC TV LFCTV (Liverpool F.C. TV) is the dedicated official channel for English football club Liverpool F.C. which launched on 20 September 2007. It was formerly offered as part of the Setanta Sports package, but is currently a stand-alone channel. The ...
. In 2017, she became a sports columnist for the ''Metro'' newspaper, and in 2018 wrote a piece for the BBC about the challenges that women face in the media's portrayal of female athletes on and off the field. She also became a weekly sport columnist for the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'' newspaper. In August 2019, she began hosting the BBC's flagship football phone-in programme, ''
606 __NOTOC__ Year 606 ( DCVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 606 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...
'', with regular pundit
Robbie Savage Robert William Savage (born 18 October 1974) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, now a football pundit and director of football at club Macclesfield. During his career he played predominantly as a midfielder, ...
. In 2020, she competed in ''
Celebrity Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2 ...
'', finishing as a losing finalist. In July 2021, it was confirmed that Quek would become a team captain on the long-running show ''
A Question of Sport ''Question of Sport'' (previously ''A Question of Sport'') is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast on ...
''. Her appointment was part of a change to the programme's line-up that saw
Paddy McGuinness Patrick Joseph McGuinness (born 14 August 1973) is an English actor, comedian and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of Peter Kay, who invited him to appear in his programmes ''That Peter Kay Thing'', '' Phoenix Nights'' and ''M ...
take over as host and Quek become the show's first permanent female captain alongside former
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
player
Ugo Monye Ugochukwu Chiedozie Monye (born 13 April 1983) is an English sports pundit and former rugby union player, Monye played 14 times for , 241 times for his only club Harlequins and played twice for the British & Irish Lions on their 2009 tour to ...
. In July and August 2021, Quek was also co-anchor of BBC's Olympic Breakfast morning programme, covering the
Tokyo Olympic Games Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics * 1964 Summer Olympics * 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021) See also

* Tokyo bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics * Tokyo Paralympics (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...
alongside Dan Walker. In November 2021, just seven days after giving birth to her daughter, Quek recorded an episode of ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
'' and won £16,000 for her nominated charity, which made her the most successful contestant of the Celebrity Special edition, which also featured Harry Redknapp and
Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...
. In January 2022, Quek started hosting the
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
show ''
Morning Live ''Morning Live'' is a "topical live series" that airs at 9:15 am on weekdays on BBC One. Series overview History ''Morning Live'' first broadcast in October 2020 as a 40-part series to connect with viewers' real-life concerns and to offer tr ...
'' with
Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C a ...
.


Personal life

Quek is married to Tom Mairs, a property entrepreneur who appeared as the titular "Secret Millionaire" on the reality show of the same name in 2010. She is a supporter of
Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...
and counts their former striker
Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980–1987 and 1988–1996. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a t ...
as one of her sporting heroes. She is also a fan of the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...
. She was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Years Honours List for services to hockey. Quek published her autobiography ''Sam Quek: Hope and a Hockey Stick'' in 2018. In May 2020, Quek was warned by the Advertising Standards Authority for a second time about promoting a business on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
without announcing that she was being paid by the company. In March 2021, Quek became a mother to a daughter, Molly Doris Mairs, after a 'traumatic' caesarean section. Quek filmed her appearance on ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
'' just one week later. On 11 October 2021, Quek announced she was pregnant with her second child and gave birth in March 2022 to a son, Isaac Gregory Mairs.


References


External links

* *
''Question of Sport''
(BBC One)
''Morning Live''
(BBC One) {{DEFAULTSORT:Quek, Sam 1988 births Alumni of Leeds Beckett University British female field hockey players Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England English female field hockey players English people of Chinese descent English people of Singaporean descent Field hockey players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Holcombe Hockey Club players I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants Living people Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Olympic field hockey players of Great Britain Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in field hockey People from Heswall