Kate Richardson-Walsh

Kate Richardson-Walsh
OBE

Richardson-Walsh at the 2015 EuroHockey Championship
Personal information
Birth name	Kate Louise Walsh
Nationality	British
Born	(1980-05-09) 9 May 1980 Withington, Manchester, England
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 in) [1]
Weight	66 kg (146 lb)
Spouse(s)	Helen Richardson-Walsh (m. 2013)
Sport
Country	Great Britain  England
Sport	Field hockey
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team 2012 London Team Champions Trophy 2012 Rosario Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2002 Manchester Team 2014 Glasgow Team 2006 Melbourne Team 2010 Delhi Team World Cup 2010 Rosario Champions Trophy 2010 Nottingham EuroHockey Nations Championship 2015 London 2013 Boom 1999 Cologne 2005 Dublin 2007 Manchester 2009 Amstelveen 2011 Monchengladbach Champions Challenge 2002 Johannesburg 2007 Baku

Kate Louise Richardson-Walsh, OBE (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 years.^[2]

Early life

Richardson-Walsh was born in Withington, Manchester and attended Priestnall School in Stockport.^[3] Her first hockey club was Didsbury Greys in Manchester.^[4] 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 Olympic Games.^[5] She graduated from Brunel University in 2003 with a 2:1 (BSc Sports Science).^[6]

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.^[7] Between 2013 and 2016 she was elected to the British Olympic Association Athletes' Commission and European Olympic Athlete’s Commissions.^[8]

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 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 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.^[2]

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.^[9]

In 2015 Richardson-Walsh captained England to win the 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.^[10]

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.^[11] Kate Richardson-Walsh was selected to be the Team GB flag bearer at the closing ceremony for the Rio Olympics.^[12]

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.^[2]

Domestic hockey career

She played club hockey for Reading in the England Hockey League Premier Division for seven years.^[13] 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 ^[14]. 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)^[15]

Post hockey playing career

Following on from her 2016 retirement from International Hockey, Richardson-Walsh has expressed a desire to go into hockey coaching.^[16]

Richardson-Walsh has also worked with BT Sport providing commentary and match analysis for their hockey coverage.

Kate is an athlete ambassador for sports website platform Pitchero^[17] 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.

Personal life

Walsh was in a long-term reationhip with Surbiton player and former GB Hockey Captain Brett Garrard. They were engaged to marry in 2007, before Walsh ended the relationship^[18]. In 2008 Walsh began a relationship with international team mate Helen Richardson. They married in 2013 and both changed their last names thereafter.^[19]

Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh made history becoming the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic Gold medal together.^[20] and the first married British couple to win Gold together since 1920.^[21]

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.^[22]

Richardson-Walsh's younger sister Rachel was also capped for England hockey.

Awards

Richardson-Walsh is three times a winner of the Hockey Writers Club UK Player of the Year (2003. 2007 and 2012).^[23]

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.^[2]

In 2014 Richardson-Walsh was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University.^[5]

Richardson-Walsh was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to hockey^[24][25] and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours, also for services to hockey.^[26][27]

In 2016 Richardson-Walsh was the first hockey player to be shortlisted for BBC Sports Personality of the Year. She achieved 6th place out of 16 nominees with 34,604 votes ^[28]

In March 2017 Richardson-Walsh was nominated for a place in the European Hockey Hall of Fame.^[29]

In June 2017 Richardson-Walsh was presented with the highest honour in English Hockey; the England Hockey Member of Honour. ^[30] 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 presented alumna Richardson-Walsh with an Honorary Doctorate in July 2017, recognising her service to the national or international community. ^[31]

References

Media related to Kate Richardson-Walsh at Wikimedia Commons