‘I might be in better shape than I was going in!’ Maddie Hinch on training in a garage with sights set on Tokyo

The star of Great Britain’s hockey gold medallists in Rio tells Bella Butler about the ups and downs of working towards defending their crown

Maddie Hinch has her sights set on Tokyo (Red Bull)

Maddie Hinch was the star of the Great Britain hockey squad at the Rio Olympics after her incredible saves in the final penalty shootout propelled her team to gold.  

Since then, Hinch has been awarded Female Goalkeeper of the Year by the International Hockey Federation three consecutive years in a row, earned bronze medals at the Euros, World League and Commonwealth Games, and also an MBE.  

In March, Hinch was preparing for her second Olympics after coming back off a break from international hockey, with hopes to defend GB’s title and show-off her status as one of the world’s best goalkeepers.  

But as the summer turned out differently, goalposts not just shifted but were removed completely from Hinch, leaving her to take training home – specifically, to her garage. Even with the disappointment of a delayed Olympics, and the uncertainty of whether it would even go ahead, her focus stayed clear, using the time off the pitch to improve herself as an athlete in any way she could.

With her garage kitted out with gym equipment supplied by Red Bull, Hinch turned her disappointment into positivity, training day in day out to physically make herself stronger with the Olympics always on her mind.

“That time to step back and reset you’d usually never get and so it was a gift really,” Hinch told The Independent.  

“At first, I had very negative thoughts and feelings around the whole thing. Just thinking that it’s another whole year away and questioning so much like whether I’d have enough in me to do it was really hard. But looking at it now and given where I am in myself, having that time to reset and to focus, not so much tactically as a goalkeeper, but physically and mentally benefitted me.  

“As a squad, I really think this will help us going into Tokyo and it’s given us more time to be in a better place that we probably wouldn’t have been in this summer.”

The 32-year-old stretched her limits at the last Olympics, saving all four Netherlands penalties in a final shootout to take the title and the gold from the defending champions. Standing at 5’6", her acrobatic saves were a feat remembered by many, and Hinch was widely credited as the deciding factor in the outcome. “Thankfully I played well!” she humbly laughed when her performance was praised – an understatement at best.  

“It’s the highlight of my career, winning that gold medal,” she said, “The way the whole game went and the impact it had on our sport, the amount of people that watched, all of it was just incredible.  

“But a standout moment for me was actually the opening game. Australia were a team that we hadn’t beaten very often at all. It was a great match and we got ourselves over the line together. That was, for me, the key moment where we knew this could be a really special tournament for us.

“That encapsulates the whole reason why we train every day and work so hard; it’s for moments like winning gold that don’t happen every day. That Olympics will definitely take a topping!”

After the success she experienced in Rio, Hinch began to feel the effects of being in the spotlight and decided to take a step back from international play in 2018.  

“There was a side to the medal some people just didn’t understand, and I didn’t understand it until I had one myself,” she says. “Of course, it’s incredible to win a gold medal but life changed quite considerably quite quickly. There was a lot of attention and I generally just didn’t know how to handle it.  

“What I was trying to do was live up to a level that wasn’t realistic consistently, while trying to almost repeat the final performance and be this superhuman that everyone was saying I was every day. It was so tiring and burnt me out completely.  

“It did take a good eight months or so to start to miss it and be able to see the bigger picture. I’m very glad that I took a break because I don’t think I’d be here now if I hadn’t. I learnt the power of switching off and how sometimes doing more is not necessarily better.”

Going into another break after a year getting back into international play is bound to be frustrating, but Hinch used the lockdown as a chance to build on her strength – a vital part of training for any goalkeeper as “power athletes”.

“It’s a strange position to be in,” she says. “You’re part of a team but it’s so individual so my whole training programme is very different to the outfield players.  

“From a gym perspective, we focus a lot more on lifting and generating as much power as we can while trying to transfer that on to the pitch and have explosive movements. To have a gym in my garage at home has been great. I definitely had to adapt my training over lockdown, but I might actually come out of this in better shape than I did going in!”

Now, things are improving, with many athletes returning to training this week under safe restrictions approved by the government. For Hinch, this is one step closer to the Tokyo Olympics that she has had to reimagine, with the threat of crowds not being able to attend another obstacle that she might have to overcome.

“It’s such a tough one because of course there is an element of disappointment that it’s not going to be as I remember the last Games. It might feel different and there could be no crowds.  

“These are the conversations we are having as a squad because these are things to factor in now. What happens if it is just silent and how will we generate that match day excitement? I find it easier when it’s loud and there’s a big crowd – I love that and live up to those moments. Now, if it’s quiet, how do I build up that excitement by myself?”

Does she expect to claim a second Olympic gold at the restructured event?

“We are going to be able to represent Team GB and are going in to defend our title,” she says. “That is still something of so much value. We’ve got a chance to go out there and try to repeat history all over again.”

For more info on Maddie please visit her athlete profile on Redbull.com