Laura Unsworth offers a unique perspective on the achievements of Great Britain’s women’s hockey team. The 33-year-old from Sutton Coldfield is the only player to have had a part in getting them onto the podium at the last three Olympic Games — bronze in London, that first-ever gold in Rio, and now third place again here in Tokyo.
Indeed, Unsworth is the only British player, female or male, to have won more than two Olympic medals. In many respects, this campaign could only ever be a slightly tame follow-up to those all-conquering efforts five years ago, but factor in the incredible disruption this cycle has delivered (a host of players and coaches had departed even before Covid hit) and what has been achieved these past two weeks has a freshness and significance of its own.
This squad — with seven 2016 champions sprinkled through it — arrived intent on writing their own story, and if they would have preferred an alternative ending, the character and drive they showed bode well. There will, of course, be a further recalibration before Paris, with more retirements expected, but after all they have negotiated, Mark Hager and his players deserve to reflect with satisfaction on what has gone down.
“Out of all the cycles I have been part of, this has been my most challenging and I think as a team it has been our most challenging,” said Unsworth, wiping away the sweat brought on by a topsy turvy 4-3 bronze medal match win over India played in temperatures that pushed 40C. “To be honest, it probably is up there with the Rio gold medal. The things we have had to overcome as a team, people don’t know about; as a squad, we stuck together. We’ve been resilient. We fight. And I think that was shown out on that pitch today. That was GB.
“London was special because it was my home Olympics, I was young, you don’t really know anything that’s going on, you’re kind of oblivious and you just go along with it all. Rio, special, because we won. This one is even more special because through all the challenges of a global pandemic, we’ve managed to come away with an Olympic bronze medal and that is some achievement.”
Advertisement
Unsworth joked that her status as a three-times hockey medallist might make her a pointless answer on the quiz show of the same name. The obvious next question was whether, after so much winding road, this looks like the end of the journey. Yet with next year’s Commonwealth Games taking place not just in her home country but her home city, the East Grinstead midfielder/defender is understandably reluctant to make any big calls just yet.
“If someone told me when I first started playing hockey at 11 that I’d win three Olympic medals, I’d have just looked at them and said, “you what?!’ When I look back on my career I can think it’s been pretty special.
“Winning medals, you kind of get addicted to it and you think, ‘you know what, I want to go again.’ I’ll take some time. There’s a Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next summer which is my home city. Who knows? After that it’s two years to Paris so . . . you’re kind of thinking ‘can I manage three more years?’ Maybe. And winning medals, you kind of get addicted to it. You forget all about all the lows and all you remember are the highs.
“I do think it’s going to be hard to walk away before Birmingham. That’s where it all started. Pretty much on that pitch is where I did a lot of junior stuff, and it would be really nice to have my family in the crowd to see me.”
Maddie Hinch, the 32-year-old goalkeeper who has had another terrific Olympics, was also non-committal about what comes next for her in the international arena. She did, however, feel that today’s win — in which Britain went 2-0 up (through Ellie Rayer and Sarah Robertson) then 3-2 down in a madcap third quarter before goals from Hollie Pearne-Webb and Grace Balsdon guided them home — rather summed up the journey they have been on since Rio.
Advertisement
“It feels just as good [as the 2016 gold],” she said. “It would have been very easy to crumble, given we had a really terrible six minutes and let them back into the game, but the belief was there with this group and we deserved it. I’ve had some pretty low moments since Rio. I put an awful lot of pressure on myself, but the one thing I said to myself that coming here I would enjoy it, whatever happened, and I feel I have done that.
“I think I have found my love for the game again recently, and not look too far ahead. If I still feel I can contribute to this team and help them win medals, I will be there, but I have got to start looking after myself a bit more and make sure I am in a good place all the time.”
For Hager, the Australian who took over from gold medal-winning coach Danny Kerry in 2019, the success provides tangible reward for the sacrifice he has made in being apart from his Australia- and New Zealand-based family these past 15 months.
“I haven’t seen my wife, my daughters or my grandkids and I’m not sure when I’ll get home. Because of the Covid situation and quarantine in New Zealand, you can’t get a place. I’ll try to get to Aussie now and do the two weeks there. I’ll celebrate with these ladies for the next week then my priority is to get a flight home and hopefully catch up with family.
“I’ve two daughters and my wife in Auckland, and my eldest daughter, her partner and two grandkids are in Adelaide. It’s been hard, but this is my job and I need to do it properly. They’ve been a fantastic bunch of girls. Every day, they’ll come up and ask how I’m doing.
Advertisement
“If you’d asked us four months ago if we’d have been playing for medals, the answer would probably have been no. But we had belief we could still do it.”
During and after their 5-1 semi-final defeat by the Netherlands, the side they beat on penalties to secure victory in Rio, Team GB were left for dead on the pitch, then left without a name off it as the Dutch bemoaned their “arrogance” and argued that 2016 had been down to “pure luck”.
As a denunciation of someone else’s apparent lack of grace and decorum, the choice of words was interesting, but there could be equally little doubt that, for Britain, the whole experience had been wounding.
“Obviously we are in their heads,” said Unsworth. “I’m not sure why they waste so much time, if they don’t think we’re that good, speaking about us. It does spur us on a little bit. They have been very good this cycle, they are probably the No 1 side. And do I think the gold medal in Rio was a fluke? No. We beat them in the Euros the year before. If that’s what they want to think, that’s what they can think. We will keep coming back stronger and stronger.”
