After visiting the Museum in April to help its Communications Lead Lynne Morgan with her research on the total number of Great Britain capped female hockey players, GB & England International and four times Olympian, Helen Richardson-Walsh kindly agreed to lend the Museum her bronze medal from the London 2012 Olympics to see if we could make a suitable replica of it for display purposes at the Champions Trophy in June. Richardson-Walsh then asked if we would be interested in any of her old kit from her long and outstanding top class hockey career. Initially, she said it would be December before she could sort things out but Morgan was contacted before the Rio Olympics – in which Richardson-Walsh and her teammates have just won a historic gold – to say that she had a small number of items ready to donate to the Museum.

Included in the donation and in pristine condition was the white and gold trouser suit, worn by GB athletes at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony (pictured above right). The manufacturers of the ornate white and gold jacket had designed and labelled each of the jacket pockets, for headphones, pen, phone etc. The sleeveless top that was part of the uniform was also included, as was a sequined GB t-shirt (pictured left). It also included a current England tracksuit top and pins from 2012 from the USA, Argentina, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Another surprise inclusion was the AstroTurf shoes Richardson-Walsh wore for each of the London 2012 Olympic matches, which are currently on display, alongside the aforementioned replica of her London 2012 bronze, as part of the Hockey in the Olympics exhibition being held at the Surrey History Centre, Woking (pictured right).

We now look forward to Helen’s next donation, thank her for the collection so far and congratulate her hugely on her gold medal success! Perhaps we might even get some Rio Olympics kit down the line.

Lynne Morgan, 20 August 2016