Paris 2024 Olympics: Hockey legend Laura Roper fears top talent could be lost - 'We can't be left behind
BySportsbeat
Updated 21/06/2024 at 16:59 GMT
Laura Roper will go to the Paris 2024 Olympics as part of Team GB's women's hockey squad. She is in the illustrious company of Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh and Jane Sixsmith to represent her country at four Olympic Games when she competes in the French capital. The 36-year-old explains that hockey is at risk of losing more of its top female talent to the likes of football and cricket.
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Team GB's legendary hockey player, Laura Roper, believes the sport has a fight on its hands to avoid losing its top talent.
At Paris 2024, Roper will join Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh and Jane Sixsmith in a legendary quartet to have represented Great Britain in women's hockey at four Olympics.
Roper, who says she will retire after the Games, believes she is leaving the sport in a better place than she found it having made her GB debut when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister.
But the 36-year-old's lingering concern on leaving the international game is that other sports - particularly football, but also netball and cricket - who can offer a professional future for players - will cannibalise hockey's talent pool.
"Women's sport as a whole is on the up, but in hockey, we have to make sure we stay with the other sports," said Roper.
"They are leading the way, and we can't be left behind.
"The Olympics for us is a really good way for us to showcase our sport and inspire girls to get into it, but we don't have the financial backing of the other sports.
"Sports like football or cricket are probably financially backed by the male side of the game, which we don't have in hockey.
"We'd love the right sponsorship to come in, because that will also help, and as a sport we've got to stay in the mix.
"I listen to a lot of the girls in our squad speak about how they actually started playing hockey, and they started in other sports as well. You can now become professional in other sports and earn good money in a way you couldn't when we were growing up.
"The challenge we face is that we lose girls who are good at all sports, to the likes of football."
Roper believes the overall picture is healthy, particularly when it comes to attendances for home FIH Pro League matches at Lee Valley.
"I picked up my 250th cap the other day and if that had happened in 2013, there would have been maybe 100 people there," said Roper.
"There were a couple of thousand. I think that shows the growth of the sport, which is unbelievable, and that's what we need to keep doing. I didn't go and watch any international hockey when I was growing up."
Roper is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport's National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full-time, have access to the world's best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support - this is vital for her pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
Paris marks Roper's fourth Olympics, and she has stood on the podium at the first three, taking bronze at London 2012, gold at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020.
Among British women, only rower Dame Katherine Grainger has ever won a medal at more than four separate Games. Roper's love for the sport is as strong as it was when she first pulled on a GB strip back in 2008, and she passionately believes hockey has a vital role to play in Britain's sporting landscape.
"Hockey is a really unique sport that is loved by everyone who plays it," said Roper.
"It's a team game and that's the key selling point - there's nothing like it out there.
"You also see that we're all just normal girls that had a dream. I think that's important to get across to all the youngsters that play hockey. You don't need to be special.
"You just need to love the game and be prepared to work hard and you can go far in the sport."
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