GB women's hockey team glam up on path to Rio 2016

GB women's hockey team glam up on path to Rio 2016
With their Olympic qualifying tournament approaching, the women of GB hockey have adopted an edgy style in a bid to raise their profile When the Great Britain women’s hockey team beat New Zealand to secure bronze at London 2012 – their first medal in 20 years – Kate Richardson-Walsh, their captain, managed to keep her emotions in check amid scenes of unbridled jubilation. It was only later, as she was being interviewed live on television, that her composure crumbled. “If anybody deserves a gold medal for bravery…” began the interviewer, “you fractured your jaw just over a week ago and got back playing.” Kate, her face scrunched up, shaking her head and wiping her eyes, was unable to respond. For those who saw it, it was an unforgettable moment of sporting drama. • Richardson-Walsh: I can move on now In the team’s opening match against Japan, Akane Shibata had accidentally smashed a stick into the side of Kate’s face. She had spent two nights in hospital before being discharged, declared fit to play in a specially designed facial mask. Of that time, she says, she can now recall little. “I remember everything being really silent for 24 hours but I thought, 'Well that’s the situation, get your head down and make the best of it.’” Her resilience and determination to get back on the pitch was one of the great human stories of London 2012. Suddenly, Kate, her team and her beloved sport were making headlines and it was an opportunity not to be missed, a chance to lay to rest some of the lazy assumptions about the sport – a game played by chunky, intellectually challenged, jolly-hockey-sticks girls – in the process. “I think if you looked at us in London we probably wiped away the stereotypes,” laughs Georgie Twigg, a 24-year-old midfielder who is now one of the sport’s most recognisable faces. “We were a bunch of good-looking girls with athletic figures... There has been a lot more interest in hockey since then.” • New glamorous look for GB women's hockey team: the full shoot Of course, it has helped that hockey has on its side the best poster girl any brand could wish for. When, in March 2012 as part of pre-Games publicity, the Duchess of Cambridge stepped onto the Olympic Park hockey pitch, dressed in trainers and bright orange skinny jeans to show off stick skills honed at Marlborough College, the nation suddenly went crazy for the game. Littlewoods reported a surge in equipment purchases, with hockey stick sales up by 238 per cent and shin guards – which the Duchess wasn’t even wearing – up by 114 per cent. It seemed hockey’s time had come. The Duchess of Cambridge playing hockey at the Olympic Park in March 2012 [PHOTO: CHRIS JACKSON] And when Richardson-Walsh finally found her voice in that post-victory interview, it was to articulate this achievement. “It’s massive, massive,’’ she said, grinning broadly at the camera. ''We just got hockey out there to the public, to the world public. Now we just want everybody, men, women, children of all ages, to get out there, pick up a stick and have a go.’’ Three years later, the sport is still riding that triumphant wave. There are now 180,000 regular players turning out for the 900 clubs across the country, with 25 per cent more women and 55 per cent more under-16s playing since 2011. • Best 25 hockey players in the world The latest figures show that hockey is the most gender-balanced team sport, with an exceptional 52:48 per cent ratio of women to men. For the elite players, that bronze medal also won for the men’s and women’s GB team a level of funding from UK Sport that means they can be paid as they train for their next major challenge – Rio 2016. At Bisham Abbey sports centre in Buckinghamshire the 32-strong squad, who range in age from 20 to 35, have access to the best facilities and coaches money can buy, playing on a state-of-the-art pitch that cost £1.2 million. On June 10, they will have their first chance to qualify for Rio, when they take part in the Hockey World League semi-final in Valencia. The eighteen athletes have just been announced and the newly media-savvy Great Britain women’s hockey team want everyone to know about it. Memories are short in the media and women’s teams struggle even more than individual athletes to gain coverage, so they have had to learn to play the profile-raising game to their advantage. Take the World Cup winning England women’s rugby team: last year its members turned up to the premier media event of the sporting calendar, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, wearing identical navy ball dresses. In February, the England women’s cricket team upped the stakes even further and bowled over cricket fans – both male and female – when they were granted special permission to pose for a magazine in the historic Long Room at Lord’s, wearing glittering gowns and dazzling smiles. Now it’s time for hockey to get glamorous, and the exclusive image on our front page is the result. No sequins or smiles for these women, though: instead they chose bold block colours, the highest of heels, crop tops to show off exceptionally toned abs and tight-fitting trousers or shorts. Their choice of location in Dalston, London’s hippest district, and the edgy pose they strike – it screams ATTITUDE! – confirms that these are women on a mission to prove that hockey can be sexy.