Sam Quek was part of the Great Britain women’s hockey team that won gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Here she talks about the challenges that women face in the media’s portrayal of female athletes on and off the field.
Name: Sam Quek. Age: 27. Occupation: Swimwear model.
Are you kidding me?
My partner collected all the newspapers from when we were out in Rio at the Olympics. Every bit in which the hockey girls were mentioned, he’d cut it out. Before the final, one paper did a bio on each player: name, age, occupation.
People had ‘doctor of nutrition’, ‘full-time PHD student’ or ‘training to be a solicitor’. I got down to mine and it was ‘Sam Quek: swimwear model’. Then it had a background of my other half, who owns a property company.
I felt it painted a picture that I had no education – like I was a bit of a no-one. ‘She’s a swimwear model, so let’s talk about her other half.’
I did one shoot before the Olympics about celebrating the female body. I thought it was great: it ticked boxes of being classy, being sporty – but it was also glamorous.
But when you searched my name it was the first proper picture that came up. I’m not a swimwear model, but you’ve seen one picture and decided to latch on to that?
Why not the fact that I’ve got a degree? Or that I got my first international hockey cap when I was 18? Even that I’d missed out on the Games in Beijing and London and was fighting for gold in Rio?