name: Sarah Jones
Country: England
Sports: Field hockey
Olympic experienceTokyo 2021
Social media: Instagram
Who is Sarah Jones?
Sarah Jones' journey to the GB national team wasn't just about field hockey: she will be an Olympic medallist in the sport at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, one of 186 openly LGBTQ athletes to do so. Originally from Cardiff, Jones' involvement with the sport dates back to her early teens playing for her local team, but field hockey wasn't a constant part of her life until she went to university.
She tried out for both soccer and field hockey at Loughborough University, ultimately choosing the latter as her teammates were openly accepting and celebrating her being gay.
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“A lot of these girls were gay and were in various stages of coming out – some were in relationships, some weren't, and quite frankly a lot of them were just trying to figure it out,” Jones wrote in her own column for BBC Sport. “But being in that environment really helped me feel more confident in who I was and how normal that was.”
She uses her position as a member of both the Welsh and Great Britain national teams to advocate for greater participation in field hockey and speaks about the power of sport to break down these barriers.
“An event like the Olympics, for example, is so visible. It can shape political movements and set the tone for so many other areas of life. It has the power to shape and change lives, and that's what's so great about hockey, and what makes it so powerful,” she said. “I know what hockey has done for me and how hockey has given me confidence and joy. I want hockey to be a space for everyone and for everyone to be their true self.”
Sarah Jones at the Paris Summer Olympics
Jones and the British team will be up against a strong 12-team field in Paris and will face a tough task if they are to reach the same heights as they did in 2021, when they won bronze in dramatic fashion with then-partner and Welsh field hockey legend Leah Wilkinson.
The group stage draw includes two teams ranked in the top five in the world and their regional champions, Argentina and Australia, as well as world No. 7 Spain, who qualified for the Olympics through the same qualifying tournament as Great Britain.
Jones was tied for second on the team in points during qualifying and believes the high-pressure conditions of that tournament helped prepare her teammates for Paris.
“The pressure is really high and I think the training we've been doing, especially since September, has really prepared us for that high-pressure environment,” Jones told Hockey Media's Top Of The D. “Nothing can ever replicate an event like this.”
