Katie Richardson-Walsh OBE

To mark International Women’s Day on Thursday 8 March 2018 and to support this year’s campaign #PressforProgress, ten lucky Little Ilford students were invited to the offices of Berwin Leighton Paisner, an international law firm on London Bridge, to meet Kate Richardson-Walsh MBE; captain of the Olympic gold-winning GB hockey team who led them to a nail-biting victory in Rio 2016.

Since her international debut in 1999, Kate has made over 370 appearances for her country. She is the most capped female hockey player in GB history and the first openly gay female flag-bearer at an Olympics. Having recently retired from professional sport, Kate shared her powerful story about ambition, leadership and teamwork.

As an ambassador for the Women’s Sport Trust, Kate is committed to inspiring the next generation of women to achieve their goals, and this she certainly did, talking about how the England womens’ hockey team created a strong relationship through communication and determination to succeed, and came together to victory in Rio because they were women, and not in spite of it.

After her talk, Kate was very happy to let us all hold her gold medal (which was surprisingly heavy!) and take selfies, impressing us all with her warm and down to earth nature.