This Much I Know: Deirdre Duke, Irish Women’s Hockey Olympian
"It was so good to be able to continue to train and, because we’re so close as a team, that I was actually able to see all my friends."
Jennifer Stevens
Ireland's Nicola Evans and Deirdre Duke celebrate another goal at last year's European Hockey Championship. Pic: INPHO/Frank Uijlenbroek
I suppose when the 2020 Olympic Games were postponed it was pretty bizarre. It was kind of like falling off a cliff. You’re training full-on, getting ready for the biggest event of your sporting life and then suddenly, we had a few months off. Our programme had been quite intense, so we had a pretty brief period of game time for about two months, and then just started to ramp back up again over June, July, August last year, and then since September, we’ve been training flat out as a squad again.