Oldham's Nicola White says she "probably would have freaked out" if she knew how many were watching her Olympic Final in Rio

Olympic Gold Medalist Nicola White speaks to students at Oldham College

Oldham’s Olympic Gold medalist, Nicola White, has been talking about that final in Rio in 2016.

The field hockey star was speaking to students at Oldham College to encourage them to get more active.

The 30-year old explained how she felt receiving the medal and the amount of work that had gone in to getting there – from her and the whole team.

Nicola was talking about the benefits of sport, physically and mentally, and how it can lead to a long and healthy life.

Talking about that epic final in Rio, she said: “I’ve not had it [the medal] out for a while because I’ve been injured for the last year and a half!

“Every time I get it out it brings back so many memories. Just that one medal, you can tell a whole story about it, it has a whole background. I absolutely love it.

“I know it took a long time to make it and I know the girls, especially in the Rio cycle, you can’t do it without every single one of them.

“Some make it and some don’t and that’s the really sad thing about it, but when you do stand on the podium and all that hard work has gone into it, it’s just a feeling nothing can beat.”

The girls won the final on a penalty shoot-out, after drawing 3-3 with the Netherlands.

Nicola scored the equalising goal on 53 minutes, with Team GB twice having to come from behind to level the scores in the match.

The country watched anxiously as it went to a penalty shoot-out – and the celebrations were huge when Team GB won out.

Nicola added: “We didn’t really have a clue at the time that 10 million people were watching.

“If you’d told us then that that was the case, we’d have probably freaked out!

“But when we turned our phones on after the Olympics had finished and all the messages came through, then the welcome home, we realised we’d done something special.

“To be appreciated is something that’s probably quite uncommon in hockey but looking forwards it’s quite bright for the sport and I think that we’ve put it on the best path possible.”