HELEN and Kate Richardson-Walsh won a gold medal in women’s field hockey for Great Britain on Friday night, and no, they’re not sisters.

    Kate is the captain of her national team, which defeated the Netherlands in a nailbiting shootout following a 3-3 tie in regulation.

    Helen is her wife.

    The Richardson-Walshes will not just take twin gold medals back to their home in Maidenhead, just outside London, they will also carry a slice of Olympic history with them. Actually, a bit more Olympic history. They were already the first gay married couple to compete at the same Olympics. Now they are the first medalists, and first gold medalists, of that description.

    “It is really, really special,” Kate Richardson-Walsh said. “To win an Olympic medal is special. To do it with your wife standing next to …we will cherish this for the rest of our lives.”

    Same sex marriages became legalized in most of the United Kingdom in 2013 and Kate and Helen wed the same year, in a lively occasion to which all of their teammates were invited. They had gotten together in 2008 and it was all a bit of a surprise in the hockey community. Kate had previously been engaged to Brett Garrard, a former captain of the British men’s team. Helen had been in a long relationship with another woman.

    Their union works, both on and off the field. Teammates joke about it when one delivers a crunching tackle on another in training. The squad embraced them as family.

    There was some sadly inevitable sniping from some quarters when the relationship was made public, but none from within the national team.

    Kate, team captain since 2003, had her jaw smashed by a flailing stick early in the 2012 London tournament but had a swift operation, donned a face mask and skippered the team to bronze.

    Great Britain reportedly has the highest number of openly gay athletes at the Rio Games, with eight out of a total of 44.

    (SD-Agencies)