Helen Richardson-Walsh MBE
Olympic Gold Medalist, GB Women’s Hockey
After beginning her international career in 1999 at the age of 17, midfield maestro Helen became the youngest ever woman to represent GB hockey at an Olympics in Sydney the following year, and has gone on to compete at four Olympic Games. As she stepped on to the podium alongside her team mate and wife, GB captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, they also entered Olympic history as the first same sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing for the same team.
Over the course of her 17-year international career Helen has amassed a Commonwealth bronze and two silvers, a bronze at London 2012, and the European Championship title in 2015, before finally reaching the pinnacle of her sport as part of the celebrated GB hockey team that beat the Netherlands in Rio to win her gold medal.
Alongside Head Coach Danny Kerry and a close knit team of senior players, Helen helped put in place team values and processes to create a winning culture within the squad. ‘Be the Difference, Create History and Inspire the Future’ was their team mantra, and in winning gold in Rio she feels immense pride that they did just that. In the 2017 New Year Honours Helen was awarded an MBE for services to hockey.
Helen is an experienced keynote speaker who will motivate and inspire your audience around themes of high performance, motivation and goal setting, psychology and behaviours of a winning team, leading change, fighting back and mental wellbeing, inspiring a generation, and diversity and inclusion.
