Double Vision

“During my second year at uni the head coach of the women’s senior team asked me to trial with the ladies squad who were training full-time for the London 2012 Olympics at Bisham Abbey,” Georgie explained. “After the trial period, they then invited me to train with them on a full-time contract, but I still had one year left of my degree. Bristol was fantastic and very supportive – they allowed me to split my final year over two years. I could attend virtually and then go back to Bristol for a couple of tutorials every week.”

And aside from the fact that she was selected for the Olympics, and then also got her degree the same summer, there are other rewards to straddling both competitive sports and an ambitious career.“I always say that there are so many transferable skills – particularly from a team sport – but from any sort of high-performance sport into the working environment. When you’re playing in a team, there are so many different characters and, outside of sport, you would never all be best friends. But you literally live and breathe every single day with this group for so long, so there are challenges and it’s about learning to work through all of that.”

“If you think about that in the working environment, you’ve got to work with lots of different characters and there might be people who irritate you. But those team working skills apply,” she continued, “Playing team sport also teaches you the importance of communication. Because I went into the squad as a young athlete, I had to quickly learn how to chat to the older girls and have those tough conversations with the coach – so I’m not afraid to do that in the work environment. There are lots of transferable skills.”

After the Rio Olympics in 2016, Georgie started her training contract with the law firm Bird & Bird in London. “Amazingly, I actually got that training contract when I was at Bristol University. It was meant to start after London 2012 and they were happy to defer my place until after Rio. It was such a huge relief to know that I had that waiting for me straight after Rio and that I had Bird & Bird’s support. Obviously, that meant that I had to stop playing internationally, but I did carry on club hockey and I still play at Surbiton Hockey Club now.”

Her advice to all the girls out there currently choosing between sport and academics? “You can do both. Even if you’re not competing in a high-performance sport, doing exercise is so important for your mental wellbeing,” she said. “Girls at school nowadays think they have to fall into one bracket, especially if you’re really academic and you suddenly become consumed with it all. But balancing that with sport can be so beneficial – it can give you a bit of perspective and help the stress levels. I’m proof that it is possible.”