Olympic hockey heroine’s life after Rio - and the big Dutch rematch
Maddie Hinch talks to Tom Cary about life after her heroics in Rio, and that little red book
For someone used to spending her life buried beneath “15kg of smelly kit and a helmet”, and whose mother still turns up to games and “waves at the wrong goalie, bless her” it has been a strange experience for Maddie Hinch being stopped in the street by the general public.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” she laughs. “Just occasionally. But if I’m getting recognised, and I’m the one who wears the helmet, that’s a good sign for hockey.”
Hinch and her team-mates have had to get used to acclaim since that extraordinary night at the Rio Olympics last August, when ‘Mad Dog’ (not a nickname Hinch is a big fan of) saved all four of Holland’s penalties as Team GB won hockey gold in a shoot-out at the Deodoro stadium.
Time stood still – literally for the BBC controllers, who delayed the 10pm news to allow the nation to watch history being made.
It was the night Hinch’s life changed forever. “Yeah, I would say it did. I mean, I’m still just a hockey player. I’ve not suddenly become a TV star or anything. But it has been crazy at times.”
The question, nearly 12 months on, is whether GB hockey has managed to build on that stunning Rio success? Has it capitalised on that once-in-a-generation opportunity?
On Sunday, Hinch and many of her victorious team-mates from last summer will face off against Holland again, this time in England colours, in what is effectively a repeat of that Olympic final. It is part of the Investec International Series, pitting the top three teams in the world against each other, with England taking on Argentina the previous day.
Hinch has just spent a season playing in Holland with Stichtsche, where the banter was flying. She, of course, famously out-psyched the Dutch penalty-takers that night with her little red notebook, in which she had written down their penalty habits, and she says the players keep asking her about it whenever they face each other.
“The Dutch have now faced me three times in a shoot-out and they still seem to be freaked out by this book,” she laughs. “It could be blank for all they know.”
The truth is, though, Hinch envies the set-up the Dutch have, with professional teams and proper wages. There is a reason, she says, that they are the best in the world.
England Hockey is trying to bridge the gap. Last week it won the Best Sports Governing Body Initiative for its “To become a nation where hockey matters” campaign, and it is true that the sport has never been more popular in this country. Hinch, though, wants more.
“We know that the numbers picking up hockey sticks at clubs has risen massively. I think it’s 10,000 people across the nation. The impact of the final was obviously huge, and I think we’re in a good place. We just need to make sure we keep on winning and doing good things. And keep showing hockey in a positive light. The problem here is the club system is not televised, and I think that’s where people want to see us more.”
Hinch reckons they are on the right road. BT Sport has just announced a deal with the world governing body, the FIH, to become the ‘home of UK and Irish international hockey’ over the next two years, showing the women’s World Cup in London and the men’s World Cup in India.
But the domestic game remains in limbo. It is a chicken-and-egg situation, with broadcasters unwilling to invest unless the sport is popular enough, and the sport unable to get popular enough without the help of TV.
“I think it’s just going to take time,” Hinch says. “I think we’ll end up going down the netball route. More of a Super League; a shorter league; with the spread of international players more even across clubs and nations.”
Hinch is doing her part to grow the game at grass-roots level. Next month she hosts her first goalkeeping camp, a three-day event in St Albans which sold out in double-quick time. She laughs at the irony of the fact that she is now extolling the virtues of goalkeeping when she herself was far from convinced as a teenager.
“I think especially as a 13-yearold girl you don’t want to be putting on 15kg of smelly kit,” she says. “And I was used to running around. So being stood still for a lot of the time… I couldn’t really get my head around what could be so great about this position. But you soon learn that a team needs you more than anyone, almost. You can make or break a game. If you make one big save at a crucial time, there is no better feeling.” It has certainly worked out for Hinch. After her shoot-out success in Rio, the offers, from Jonathan Ross to Buckingham Palace, came flooding in.
“We got off that plane and spent 10 days going from hotel, to taxi, to TV show. It was absolutely nuts,” she says. “The next thing you know you are sat on Jonathan Ross’s sofa with Bridget Jones [actress Renée Zellweger]. That was the weirdest one.
“For a lot of the girls it went on a lot longer, but I had to go to Holland to play for my club. I was playing again within 10 days.
“My priority is very much to keep playing hockey. But it was a crazy time and I did miss out on quite a number of things by being in Holland.”
She did come back to collect her MBE (“Me and Prince William are, like, super tight now”) and also made it a stipulation of her contract with Stichtsche that she could take January off to go skiing.
Mostly, though, she just wants to play. At 28, Hinch feels in her prime and is keen to cement her status as world No 1. She wants to continue for “another two cycles, possibly more”.
‘I think especially as a 13-year-old girl you do not want to be putting on 15kg of smelly kit’