Golden girl Crista returns to Oakham
Olympic gold medal winner Crista Cullen returned to her Oakham School roots on Friday, September 28 to officially open a new hockey pitch named in her honour.
The Great Britain hockey player, who won bronze at London 2012 before coming out of retirement to strike gold at Rio 2016, also used the opportunity to coach the lower school teams following a question and answer session with pupils.
Crista later took part in an ‘all star’ hockey match which saw her again take to Oakham’s pitches where she honed her skills at the beginning of her path to Olympic success.
She captained a specially selected Old Oakhamian squad against a team of current students in the first match of its kind to be held at Oakham.
The Crista Cullen squad included two team Under 23 Great Britain players - Lucas Ward and Matt Ramshaw - as well as an England Under 21 player, Alice Huddlestone.
The All Stars emerged narrow victors following an entertaining match.
“I’m hugely humbled to have a pitch named after me,” said Crista, adding it was an honour to return to the school that had given her the “attributes to be able to succeed”.
Although Crista was born in the UK in 1985, she grew up in Kenya and attended the same school as Tour de France winner Chris Froome.
Father Garry was a professional golfer while her mother Gai played squash so Crista and older brother Gray were introduced to sport from a young age.
She moved to Oakham School as a boarder at age 12 after her parents believed it would be better for her long term education and sporting aspirations.
It wasn’t all easy though, and she initially struggled to adjust.
“I was far away from my parents and came from a different culture,” said Crista.
“I was super different but sport gave me an identity.
“You’re judged purely on your performances, nothing else.”
Although she was already playing hockey at the time, Crista immersed herself in “all sports”.
“I wanted to play everything and I tell kids today that they should try as much as possible as different sports develop different skills,” she said.
In addition to playing first team hockey while at Oakham, Crista also played first team netball and tennis and until recently held the U19 400m school record.
It was at age 15 that she was forced to make a choice between hockey and athletics when conflicting England trials for both took place on the same day.
Hockey seemed the right choice as Crista would go on to secure a place in the England U16 hockey team and by age 17 had earned her first international cap.
After completing her A-levels she went on to study for a BA in Business Studies at The Nottingham Business School.
She eventually competed in three Olympic games - Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 where she won bronze and Rio in 2016 when she was called out of retirement to join the gold medal winning team.
