“times Are Changing, But Still Work To Be Done,” Says Kate Richardson-walsh

Olympic gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE joined senior figures from a range of organisations including Bruin Sports Capital, BT Sport, City Football Group, Deltatre, European Tour, FA, LTA, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, Tag Heur and many more at the Sport Industry Private Dining Club, hosted by Integro Entertainment & Sport, on Thursday evening.

Kate, who captained the TeamGB women’s hockey team to a gold medal at Rio 2016, spoke openly about steady improvement for women in sport, but acknowledged their was still plenty of work to be done, calling on media to bring women’s sport into the limelight.

“My first international cap was in 1999 and a lot has changed for the better since that day,” she explained to Sport Industry Private Dining Club members. “We qualified for the Sydney Olympics in men’s baggy polo shirts – by contrast, we went to Rio in Stella McCartney designed Lycra! There are signs of change; now I can turn on Sky and watch netball on a weekly basis, for example. I think of what Serena Williams has done for tennis or Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill for athletics and it just shows what one person has the ability to do.

“There are lots of great female role models out there, I just wish we could see them more. If you can’t see it you can’t be it.

“I love to read through the papers at the weekend, but most weeks there are no mention of female athletes, but I know they are performing, I know they are competing, I know they are winning world championships all over the world in a variety of sports and disciplines. I think its lazy and its old fashioned to say that no one wants to hear about it. We need to get up to modern times and start reporting on things that people want to know about it.”

Speaking at Berry Bros & Rudd in London, Richardson-Walsh – who, along with her wife Helen, became the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic gold in the same final last summer – also spoke about her time balancing work with her hockey career.

Kate received an OBE, alongside her wife Helen, who received an MBE in the New Year’s honours list.

Asked if hockey stars of tomorrow will also have to balance a full-time job with a hockey career, Kate replied: “If I have anything to do about it they won’t have too!

“I’ve tried a lot of different roles and sectors over the years, and its taken a lot of time and work to increase our funding. As an elite hockey player, the maximum level we’ve ever had is £16k a year, which I guess you could live off, but you generally need to do other things around it. We train at Bisham Abbey which is a beautiful part of the world, but it’s not cheap! So in the past all of us would have other work alongside, whether that’s studying for a degree, or coaching. Some were training to be accountants, trainee lawyers, doctors, nutritionist, I’ve tried my hand at PR, sales, marketing…all sort!

“I’m fascinated by teams and the culture that surrounds them. Since Rio I’ve spent a lot of time looking into that and I’ve gone into companies and talked about women in leadership positions and what a good team culture looks like. I’ve been really interested talking about that subject and would love to delve even deeper.”

Kate, alongside her team-mates, celebrate winning gold in the Olympic final, watched by 9.7m live on BBC.

Since retiring from international hockey after the Olympic Games, Kate has joined the Women’s Sport Trust as a board member, with the aim of helping others get into sport, something the former national captain is keen to continue in the future.

“The last bit of the vision, looking ahead, is to try my best to help inspire the future. I want to live my whole life by that. I want to make a difference. I don’t want it to just be ‘that girl that won a gold once and held a hockey stick for a little while.’ Whether it’s women in sport, the LGBT community, young kids – girls or boys – team culture, whatever it is, I don’t mind! I just want to do the very best that I can to help give back to sport in the future.”

The invitation-only members club meets four times a year at some of the best venues in London, providing top level representatives from across the sport industry with the opportunity to network and socialise in an informal and relaxed setting.

To find out more about the Sport Industry Private Dining Club, hosted by Integro Entertainment & Sport, please contact Alex Coulson, executive director, Sport Industry Group, at alex.coulson@benchmarksport.com.

Ahead of this weekend’s Cancer Research UK Boat Races James Davies from the Entertainment & Sport Practice at Integro Insurance Brokers spoke to sportindustry.biz about the risk management and safety precautions associated with such a large-scale, major event. Read the full article here.