Kate Richardson-Walsh
Kate Richardson-Walsh PHOTOS
As the most-capped female player in British history, Kate's illustrious sporting career has inspired many. Originally making her international debut in 1999, she would later go on to captain Team GB for 13 of her 17 years on the field. In addition to her GB honours, Kate captained England since 2003, leading them to win the 2015 European Championships and being awarded bronze and two silvers in three Commonwealth Games. Kate's career went from strength to strength as she was a key figure in leading Great Britain to their first gold medal in women's hockey at the 2016 Rio Olympics and making history by becoming one-half of the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing in the same team, alongside her wife and teammate Helen Richardson.
On a more individual basis, Kate's honours include being awarded Team GB Hockey's Athlete of the Year, being shortlisted for the FIH World Player of the Year and winning the Hockey Writers’ Player of the Year award twice. To top it all though, Kate was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 2016 and awarded an OBE in 2017.
Since retiring from international hockey following the 2016 Olympics, Kate has continued to play domestic hockey for a range of teams including Bloemendaal in North Holland.
Drawing inspiration from her sporting career, Kate is a popular inspirational speaker for both the corporate and educational world. She regularly visits schools to encourage grassroots development of the game as well as delivering speeches at corporate events to provide businesses of all levels insights into the sporting world and to assist in developing leadership and communication techniques in the workplace.
" Kate spoke at the Financial Times Women at the Top Summit, having just returned from Rio where she led the GB women's hockey team to Olympic victory. She gave a fascinating, insightful interview on leadership, team dynamics and the culture of a winning team, all in a way that was relevant to our senior corporate audience and which perfectly strengthened the core theme of our event: how to achieve gender balance and redefine leadership. It was an honour to have Kate join us and the audience loved it. I would fully recommend her as a speaker "
Financial Times Women at the Top Summit
" I just wanted to pass on my huge thanks to Kate for last night's event. She was wonderful. She is such an inspiring speaker and was an absolute delight to have as a guest. We have been inundated with compliments for her and it seems she really struck the right note with audience in everything she said about team ambition and leadership. Please let her know how grateful we are. "
Mishcon de Reya, Entrepreneurs Forum
" Kate was superb in every aspect. So gracious, kind with her time and so nice to everyone. Her talk was indeed inspirational and resonated with all that were lucky to hear it. There were many key take-aways and I am sure , upon reflection that there may be more! I loved seeing her emotion and passion that still fires Kate and I am sure that whatever she does, she will be a resounding success. "
Securis Investments, Team Away Day
" I just wanted to write to say the most enormous thank you for yesterday. You were utterly inspirational, and our team has not stopped talking about the impact you made. It was very easy to see why you were such an outstanding athlete, and leader. We agreed afterwards that we would all have followed you anywhere. I have seen many magnificent sports people tell their story over the years. From World Cup winners to Olympic gold medallists. You topped them all. It was an extraordinary hour that we will never forget. "
BBH
" THANK YOU!!!!! What a wonderful, inspirational morning. I thought Kate was amazing, She was very passionate and very honest about her role as a captain, leader and as a team player. "
L’Oreal
- Leadership and communication: building a winning mind-set and bringing out the best in people
- Maintaining peak performance
- Change management: How to turn performance around
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Female leadership
- Team building: creating unity of standards, spirit and culture
- Ambition and goal setting: effective planning, organisation and evaluation
- High performance under pressure
- Grass roots sport and inspiring a new generation
