Wednesday marks ten years since Team GB's women's hockey team won a dramatic Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016, beating the Netherlands on penalties after the final finished 3-3. The victory, Britain's first Olympic hockey gold since the men's team won in 1988, was watched by nine million people back home and even gripped the Royal Family at Balmoral, with Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, revealing that Queen Elizabeth II found the penalty shootout too tense to watch continuously.

The Dutch side entered the final as reigning Olympic and world champions, having won gold in 2008 and 2012, making Team GB's win an unexpected triumph despite their strong tournament form of eight wins from eight and 21 goals scored. Penalty strikes from Helen Richardson-Walsh and Hollie Pearne-Webb sealed the win, with players later describing pre-match superstitions and a quiet confidence that it was "their time". A decade on, all but one member of that squad, Lily Owsley, has retired from international hockey, and while Team GB won bronze at Tokyo 2020, they left Paris 2024 without a medal.