Gold medals and more gold medals with a few silver to go with. Lidewij Welten’s trophy showcase is stretched for space. The Dutch forward has collected two Olympic gold medals (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) along with as many World Cup top prizes (The Hague 2014 and London 2018).

Welten’s Dutch team was pipped at the post at the 2010 Rosario World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics and settled for silver, else it would have been a double hat-trick of gold medals for the livewire forward at hockey’s two premier events.

Welten,30, also picked up gold medals at the 2009, 2011, 2017 and 2019 EuroHockey Championships but missed the recent 2021 edition because of a hamstring injury.

The HC’s-Hertogenbosch player in the Dutch league, however, is on the way to recovery and has been named in the Tokyo Olympic squad.

Having made her debut in 2008, she won the FIH Player of the Year award in 2015 and  Player of the Tournament at the 2018 World Cup in London.

She has scored around 100 goals in more than 220 international appearances and her presence on the pitch is one of the keys in The Netherlands regaining the Olympic gold they lost in a shootout against Great Britain in the 2016 Rio final.