LEE MORTON JUL 24
Exclusive by Susan Egelstaff
Just a few short years ago, Lee Morton was on the verge of hanging up his hockey stick for good.
Having been dropped from the GB squad in 2019, Morton was forced to confront the prospect that his best days, in a hockey sense, were behind him and he was coming to terms with the likelihood that he’d never be able to call himself an Olympian.
So despondent was the Glaswegian with the sport he’d committed his life to, and so resigned was he to the fact that his chances of making it to the very top were gone, Morton was seriously thinking through a retirement plan.
Something, though, made him hold off. And it’s the best choice the 29-year-old has ever made.
Having battled his way back into the GB set-up in 2022, Morton has spent the past two years establishing himself as an integral member of the British squad.
Last month, his efforts were rewarded, with the midfielder included in GB’s 16-strong men’s hockey squad for Paris 2024 and Morton admits that, considering how close he was to walking away from the sport that he began playing as a child at Kelburn Hockey Club, receiving the email that confirmed he was heading to Paris was quite a feeling.
“When I first found out I’d been selected for the Olympics, it was pretty emotional. It took a while to hit home that I was actually going,” he says.
“When I came out of the GB programme in 2019, I really was going to quit full-time hockey. I was genuinely thinking why would I continue? I’d spent my whole life trying to go to an Olympics and so I was thinking it was just never going to happen. I was only a couple of weeks away from giving up.
“The thing that made me keep going was how long I’d been playing the sport and what it’s done for me. It’s given me so many amazing opportunities and every one of my friends is from hockey. So if I gave up hockey, I was giving up pretty much my whole life. That was what made me stick with it.
“And to now be only a few weeks away???????? from playing in the Olympic Games is pretty amazing.”
It may be a common trope to suggest that adversity makes one stronger but Morton is firmly of the belief that having felt such deep disappointment and, as he has, contemplated a life without hockey, he’s now a better hockey player and, perhaps more pertinently, a stronger person.
“Going through everything I have has made me tougher. It’s given me much greater mental resilience because I’ve felt what it’s like to be right at the bottom with no hope,” he says.
“Now, I’m playing with no fear. Having gone through what I have, it’s given me an extra edge on the pitch.”
GB’s women’s hockey side has become regular Olympic medallists – at the past three Games, the women have won two bronze and a gold medal – but the men’s side have struggled to keep up in terms of silverware.
GB’s men’s team hasn’t won an Olympic medal since they became Olympic champions in 1988 but Morton and his teammates are optimistic that in Paris, they have the potential to stop the medal drought.
A second place finish in last year’s Pro League was followed-up by a ??? place in this season’s event, which has given the squad, which is currently ranked third in the world, the belief that they have the potential to be serious medal contenders in Paris.
GB’s men have been drawn in a group alongside Spain, South Africa, Germany, France and world number ones, the Netherlands, with progress out of the group and into the quarter-finals the immediate goal for Morton and his compatriots. But the Glasgow man is hopeful his side’s run doesn’t stop there.
“We’ve very confident. In Paris, we’ll be aiming for gold – that’ll be very tough but we’re definitely aiming for the podium,” he says.
“In every single training session, we’re put through the mill – there’s no easy days and that has given us a mental edge. We’re able to play high-level hockey day after day because that’s how we’re training. At the Olympics, you need to win eight matches back-to-back to win Olympic gold and we believe we can do that.”
Morton has added motivation to excel in Paris. As the lone Scottish male selected in head coach Paul Revington’s squad, he’s flying the Saltire alone in hockey terms, although Sarah Robertson, Amy Costello and Charlotte Watson are in the women’s squad.
Morton is well aware of the significance of being the first Scottish man in an Olympic hockey squad since goalkeeper Ali McGregor was part of GB’s squad for the 2008 Olympics and his inclusion will, he hopes, go some way to ensuring there is not another 16 year gap until the next Scottish male hockey player becomes an Olympian.
“It’s been such a long time since a Scottish man has represented GB at the Olympics so for me to end that run is massive. And hopefully it can show the young guys in Scotland that being Scottish isn’t a disadvantage and we can make it all the way to the Olympic Games,” he says.
“I hope that there’ll be some young Scottish guys watching me in Paris who will be in this exact position in four or eight years time.”
