Grace Balsdon
GRACE BALSDON
Hockey
A born and bred Kent athlete, Grace attended school, university and started her playing career in Canterbury. Her primary school introduced her to a huge range of sports from cricket, tennis, basketball, netball and hockey, outside of school participating in other sports such as athletics, swimming and ballet. It was her primary school PE teacher who recognised that Grace had potential to succeed in hockey and encouraged her to join Canterbury Hockey Club, however It wasn’t until year 11 that she narrowed down her chosen sport to focus on hockey! Grace believes that growing up participating in numerous sports had a great impact on her, learning many transferable skills and resulting in her becoming a well rounded player.
Grace was part of the England Hockey junior ages groups from the age of 14 and played in the Premier League for Canterbury Hockey Club. Choosing to stay in Kent to study Physical Education and Sport & Exercise Science at Canterbury Christ Church University. In 2014 she joined the senior Great Britain and England hockey squad, making her debut in San Diego against the USA. Grace now trains full-time as an elite athlete in the centralised Great British program at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre.
After missing out on selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (a historic first ever Olympic Gold medal for the GB women’s team) she sought out a new challenge and decided to go to America where she enrolled in a masters degree in Education at the University of Maryland. Following the Terps’ (University of Maryland) success, winning the BIG 10 League, one semester later she had a call from the GB head coach urging her to return.
Fast forward four years, she has now represented at 2x Europeans, 2x World Cups and she is a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bronze medalist, Commonwealth Games 2018 Bronze medalist and 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold medalist, contributing to over 115 international caps and 20 goals.
One of her career highlights is scoring the winning goal against India in the Tokyo Olympic Bronze medal match.
Throughout her career Grace has demonstrated high levels of self-motivation, organisational skills and perseverance to succeed. She takes considerable enjoyment and satisfaction from supporting individuals to fulfil their potential and always aims to bring a positive energy to inspire others.
A Fun Fact: Grace is also a qualified vinyasa yoga teacher.