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Tess Howard has been tipped to star on the hockey pitch at her first Olympics but the 25-year-old’s impact will be felt beyond any goals she manages to score in Paris.
When the British women’s team open their campaign against Spain on Sunday, some players will wear skorts – skirts with tight shorts underneath – and the others shorts.
Skorts were the only option until a campaign by Howard, backed up by her university research project, resulted in first England Hockey changing its rules in March 2023, with the International Hockey Federation following suit last June.
Howard’s research showed that sports kit and body image concerns are both a significant barrier to women and girls taking part in exercise and a trigger for them to drop out.
She founded Inclusive Sportswear to campaign for change, and told the PA news agency: “Because I had done the research, I knew how many people cared about it so I felt like it was finally a moment to give voice to so much discomfort, not just within hockey but within other sports to do with traditionally gendered uniforms, and at school.
“So I knew there would be support. I didn’t know it was going to have the impact that it had nationally and globally. But it’s just the start, we’ve only scratched the surface.
“You see other nations starting to do it but for me it’s the grass roots and the school level that means so much, when I get little messages on Instagram from girls saying they wore their shorts for the first time and they feel so much more confident.
“Or parents writing in saying we’ve spoken to the teachers at school and finally my daughter can wear what she wants. Those sorts of moments matter so much to me.”
Howard won the Changemaker Award at last year’s Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year ceremony for the impact her campaign has had, and she believes wearing shorts could help the British team as they bid to win a medal at a fourth successive Games.
“Being able to wear shorts as a choice makes me feel comfortable and my team-mates who wear shorts feel comfortable,” said Howard.
“But it’s a much bigger narrative about women having the right to choose what they wear. For me, that gives me even more energy on the pitch.
“I think it’s really important to recognise what we’re doing is a first in any team sport and that people should look to our team as a model of what it can be. It’s not that hard to have choice and inclusion if you choose to do it.”
Howard would have made her Olympic debut in Tokyo but for a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament suffered cruelly three months ahead of the Games.
She is one of six first-timers in the women’s squad while, at the other end of the experience spectrum, Laura Roper will make a fourth appearance and captain Hollie Pearne-Webb, Lily Owsley and Giselle Ansley a third each.
All were part of Britain’s historic gold medal-winning side in Rio in 2016, with the team then matching their bronze medal from London 2012 in Tokyo three years ago.
Owsley will not be looking back to Rio for inspiration, though, saying: “The game’s changed so much. I’ve seen a few videos and I think, ‘Wow, that’s just not how hockey is played any more’. The game is getting quicker and quicker.
“When I’ve retired I’ll definitely look back and be so proud of that and it will always go down probably as my greatest achievement and one of my favourite memories. But, while you’re in it, you have a greedy athlete mentality of just wanting more.”
Britain look to have their work cut out if they are to continue their medal-winning run but Owsley believes they can rise to the big occasion once again.
“We’ve got the perfect balance between experience and young talent,” she said.
“Sometimes naivety is bliss. Going into your first Olympics is something very special. I remember I didn’t get too nervous because I was just too excited.
“We have historically been good at showing up in big moments and I don’t think that’s a hockey quality thing, I think that’s mentality and grit. I hope we can do it again on the big stage.
“I love pressure. I love sport and I love playing hockey but I think the thing I’ll miss is feeling the huge weight and pressure of each game, the nerves. It’s something I think I’ll struggle to ever replicate again in my life.”
