The hockey penalty star and skipper ...GB’s first married winners since 1920
NOT since Cyril and Dorothy Wright secured victory in the sailing at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics has Britain boasted a gold-winning married couple.
But then came the extraordinary Kate Richardson-Walsh and her wife Helen, who led Team GB’s hockey golden girls on a remarkable, nerve-shredding triumph over the Netherlands.
And in the early hours of yesterday, the history-making couple joined their team-mates – including heroic goalkeeper Maddie ‘Mad Dog’ Hinch and Nicola White, who scored the crucial late equaliser against the Dutch – for a victory party at a rooftop restaurant in Rio.
The players and their families danced the night away to Tina Turner’s Simply The Best and We Are The Champions by Queen.
‘There was also lot of One Direction’s History, which is a team favourite,’ defender Sam Quek said. ‘Oh, and Reach For The Stars.
‘We used an iPod plugged into a speaker and all got on the dance floor and had a boogie – our families as well. It was a great night.’
It is not known for certain, but it is believed that Cyril and Dorothy’s celebration 96 years ago was decidedly less exuberant.
As well as sharing the Wrights’ distinction, captain Kate, 36, and Helen, 34, can go one further – they are the first same-sex married couple to win Olympic gold in the same final. It comes after Jason Kenny and his fiancée Laura Trott both won cycling gold – raising the tantalising possibility of another triumphant British married couple at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
Helen, from Nottinghamshire, who scored in the thrilling penalty shoot-out against the world champions, said: ‘To win a gold medal is a dream come true – to win it standing next to my wife is really special.’ The couple’s relationship reportedly began after the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and they married in a civil ceremony in 2013.
Kate said she and Helen ‘spur each other on’ when they’re playing, adding: ‘We put our hockey heads on when we’re at hockey and then when we get away we’re Helen and Kate, the couple.’
Kate was engaged to former Team GB men’s hockey captain Brett Garrard, but she broke off their engagement before the Beijing Games.