Sticking to her goals

Olympic bronze medal winner Nicola White

OLDHAM’S very own Olympic medallist Nicola White was almost lost to the world of hockey.

The former Hulme Grammar pupil — who collected a bronze with the Great Britain team from the magnificent sporting bonanza which transformed our summer — was so disillusioned with her sport she decided to quit and take up athletics.

“I had even bought some new spikes,” she confided as she sipped her Yorkshire breakfast tea in the Naked Bean Cafe at Oldham Gallery.

Then came the call from the selectors to attend a trial and all was once again well in White’s world.

The rest, as they say, is history. An Olympic medal is hers forever and no-one can ever take away that immense feeling of satisfaction.

Or the hurt of failing in the semi-finals and seeing the dream of gold slip away.

That colossal disappointment still haunts the GB forward, and, I suspect, that pain of defeat to Argentina will stay with Nicola and her England team-mates for a while yet.

Yet they showed true British grit to defeat New Zealand 3-1 in the bronze medal play-off match and win Great Britain’s first Olympic medal since 1992.

“Losing that semi-final was, well, it was the most distraught I have ever been. All of us, the whole group, genuinely thought we could win the gold.”

Shaw lass Nicola, a vivacious, bouncing bundle of constrained energy, is now 24 and contemplating life.

While not exactly bathing in her new-found celebrity — she stills finds it hard to believe she is famous, cafe owner Stuart Cunniffe didn’t charge for the tea or my latte he was so pleased to have her on the premises — she is looking at life through a new lens. And it’s a long lens, too.

“I’m 24 now and I have to decide whether I want to compete at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

“It is tempting, to play in another Olympics and try to get that gold medal, but it’s a also a huge commitment.”

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