Helen Richardson Walsh

Early life

Helen Richardson was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire and grew up in Nottingham. She began playing hockey at a young age, joining West Bridgford Hockey Club at the age of seven. She attended Uphill Primary school in Weston Super-Mare before returning to her home city of Nottingham where she attended West Bridgford School and South Nottingham College.

Career

Richardson joined West Bridgford Hockey Club and also played for Sherwood Hockey Clubs before joining Leicester Hockey Club. She won her first England cap in 1999, at the age of 17. At age 18 she was a member of the Great Britain team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, becoming the youngest female hockey player to represent Great Britain at an Olympic Games.

Richardson was a member of the silver medal-winning England team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. After the 2002 World Cup she underwent three operations on her ankle, returning to the sport in 2004.

Richardson won bronze medals with the England team at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games. She competed in her second Olympics in 2008, where Great Britain did not advance to the semi-finals. After the 2008 Olympics she spent a year playing for HC Den Bosch in the Netherlands before returning to England, after which she played for Reading Hockey Club for seven years.

Richardson was part of the Great Britain team that won the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, captaining the team for two games after regular captain Kate Walsh broke her jaw in the opening match. Between 2013 and 2014 she underwent surgery twice for spinal disc herniation. She was left out of the England squad for the 2014 World Cup, but returned to international hockey with the Great Britain team in April 2015. In August 2015 she was part of the England team that won the EuroHockey Nations Championship for the first time, scoring a penalty in the gold medal match penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands.

Richardson-Walsh was a member of the Great Britain team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first time that Great Britain had won gold in women's hockey. She scored one of Great Britain's two penalties in the deciding penalty shoot-out in the final against the Netherlands. Richardson-Walsh announced that she would leave Reading Hockey Club with her wife Kate to join HC Bloemendaal in the Netherlands after the Olympics, and suggested that she would retire from international hockey. In June 2017 Kate and Helen returned from HC Bloemendaal after helping the team maintain their place in the Hoofdklasse.

Richardson-Walsh announced she had signed for Cambridge City Hockey club on a 12 month contract for the 2017/2018 season. The women's team plays in the Investec Women’s League, Conference East and the club is chaired by her brother Andy Richardson.

Richardson-Walsh was part of the commentary team for the 2017 Eurohockey championships, along with her wife Kate, which was broadcast on BT Sport

In September 2017 The Perse School in Cambridge announced that Richardson-Walsh had joined their teaching staff as a part time Games Coach.

Awards

In 2009, she was shortlisted for the International Hockey Federation's World Player of the Year Award and has been named in the FIH World All Stars Team three times, in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

In 2009 and 2010 she was named as Player of the Year by the Hockey Writers' Club

In 2009, 2011 and 2016 she was awarded the Majorie Pollard Salver, making her the first player to receive the award three times.

In 2009, she was named as the BOA Athlete of the Year by Great Britain Hockey.

Following her Gold Medal success Richardson-Walsh has received various awards and accolades from her home city of Nottingham, including; Nottingham City Transport naming a bus after her, local Brewery 'Magpie Brewery' creating a guest ale 'Golden Hels' in her honour and receiving The Nottingham Sportswoman of the Year Award. In 2017 Richardson-Walsh also won the Sports Person of the Year in the Sport Nottinghamshire Awards.

In the 2017 New Year Honours Richardson-Walsh was awarded an MBE for services to hockey. Her wife and team mate Kate received an OBE, making them the first same-sex married couple to be honoured in the same list.

Personal life

In 2008, she began a relationship with her Great Britain and England teammate Kate Walsh. They married in 2013, and both adopted the surname Richardson-Walsh.

Both Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh were members of the gold medal-winning Great Britain team at the 2016 Olympics; this made them the first same-sex married couple to win Olympic gold as part of the same team, and the first British married couple to win gold as part of the same team since 1920.

Richardson-Walsh has completed a degree in psychology with the Open University.

Helen Richardson-Walsh's father coaches Winscombe Ladies Hockey Club, where Richardson-Walsh's younger half-sister Gabby, is a first team player. She has three older brothers, including Andy Richardson, who is the Chairman of Cambridge Hockey Club , and Steven Richardson, who plays for Wimbledon Hockey Club.

As a lifelong Spurs fan, Richardson-Walsh is a patron of the Proud Lilywhites, the official LGBT association of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.