Nicola White is set to begin her Olympic medal bid with Team GB tonight when the women’s hockey team face opening opponents Australia.
As part of the 16-strong Great Britain squad in Brazil, Loughborough College name Nicola hopes to feature from the start.
On Thursday, Nicola sent out a final tweet: “Prep done and time for team gb to shine! Immensely proud to be part of this team but signing off til after the games.”
A 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist, former student Nicola was one of the youngest members of the team four years ago and is amongst eight players in the Rio squad who won Bronze at the London Games.
While studying for her Sport Science degree at Loughborough College, Nicola became mentor for the College’s newly-launched Elite Athlete Performance Centre – the first residential facility of its kind in the country for emerging 16-18 year old sport talent.
The match takes place at 12.30am (Sunday morning) and will be shown on the BBC, either live on a main channel or via the red button.
Team GB then tackle India in their second group stage match on Monday night at 10pm UK time. They will initially play five group games, ending next Saturday 13 August.
The quarter-finals stage begins on Monday, August 15.
Photo: Ravi Ghowry