Crista Cullen has turned from gamekeeper to hunter in one of the unlikelier journeys back to Team GB for Rio 2016.
Not long after London 2012, the leading hockey penalty scorer from those Games — arguably the best exponent of short corners Britain has had — retired from the sport and returned home to Kenya, where she had spent much of her childhood.
Working with charities, her remit was elephant protection and anti-poaching, covering a 60,000-acre plot on the side of the Tsavo East National Park. The area acts as a buffer for the animals between their natural environment and the human element, helping to provide a safe migratory passage.
Of the poaching, Cullen says: “There are dangers but there’s also a lot of illegal grazers, so we’re trying to educate people of the value of the animals and how they can help their livelihoods so they can live peacefully side by side.”
Cullen was happy with her life. As well as her conservation work, she had set up a cross-fit company and played the occasional game of hockey on a Friday night with team‑mates ranging from the age of eight to their early sixties — “more to have a stick in my hand again” than to keep her eye in should the international call come.
In fact, the 30-year-old had no plans to return to the top of the sport until GB coach Danny Kerry called and planted the seed of an idea in April last year. “He asked me prior to the team qualifying for Rio if I was interested in being given the opportunity to prove myself back in the sport again,” she says. “To be honest, I’d never assumed it was an option, so it wasn’t a consideration.”
But the idea nagged and, having decided to first get fit enough for international hockey, she was given six months to prove herself.
“The idea of watching Rio knowing I hadn’t tried to make it would have eaten away at me,” she says. “It was only pride that held me back and my thinking was that even if me coming back makes the players that go to Rio more competitive, then it was a good thing. So it was a case of ‘why not give it a try?’”
She returned in October and has not been out of the squad this year. With Cullen back in the fold, Britain drew and won a Test against defending Olympic champions Holland at the start of June. However, they were quickly brought back down to earth at the Champions Trophy in London later that month, finishing bottom of the six-team pool, with results including a 4‑1 defeat by Australia after which coach Kerry admitted “harsh words” were spoken.
And it is against Australia that Britain have their first match on Saturday — and Cullen enters the tournament with a sense of unfinished business.
Rio 2016 Olympic Village - In pictures
While she had a bronze to her name from London, there was the prospect of an upgrade that has driven her on.
“I’ve aspirations to get a medal around my neck,” she says. “It’s what I and we all work so hard for. If we didn’t want to win, we wouldn’t get up in the morning. That’s what drives us all to work so hard.”
Cullen is one of eight survivors from London 2012 in a squad which is a mixture of experience and youthful attacking play.
Comparing the two squads four years apart, she says, is virtually impossible but she talks about the team’s prospects with the same enthusiasm as her other passion, conservation work.
It is to that and Kenya that she will return next month, although after these Games she will not be making any rash announcements about her imminent future.
“After the last time, I think I’ll keep my mouth shut about retiring!” she adds.
