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<\/p>\nSamantha Quek celebrates with Team GB after gold in the Rio Olympics<\/p>\n
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Elite sports stars are always after control so there is nothing harder than the complete helplessness of waiting on selection.<\/p>\n
2016 Olympic gold medal-winning hockey player Sam Quek knows that better than most, having been on both sides of the equation.<\/p>\n
She missed out on the GB squad in both Beijing and London, before making the cut for Rio as the hockey players provided arguably the iconic moment of the Games as they claimed gold in a penalty shootout win over favourites the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Having suffered both fates, understandably, Quek has huge sympathy for those British Olympic hopefuls waiting to find out if they have made the cut for the Paris Olympics next year.<\/p>\n
Explaining what it will be like, she said: \u201cThe first thing as an Olympic athlete if you get selected to go to Paris, as soon as you are selected, not as a reserve, in the starting team, everything else goes out the window. Then you can breathe and focus on the job.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn the build-up, you\u2019re thinking about not getting injured, not being fatigued but you want to be in the team and doing what everyone is doing. All these things are going on in your head. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe run-up in 2015, we did an Australia trip and I had a very strong trip. I was always doubting myself. Then we had the Olympic Games selection on the Monday morning after a weekend away in the Netherlands. We played two Test matches against the world number ones. The first game, I wasn\u2019t picked, I was petrified. <\/p>\n
\u201cI played on Sunday and didn\u2019t have my best game. I got my 125th cap on that Sunday. My mind was gone. Then the selection email came out on the Monday and I got selected. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were constantly, analysing and thinking, maybe overthinking. But you learn to control what you can control. The run-up to the Olympics is not nice. You thrive under pressure, that\u2019s what you do, but there nothing is in your control.\u201d <\/p>\n
Once she had been selected, Quek was able to re-establish that control, helping the team to a first-ever Olympic women\u2019s hockey gold.<\/p>\n
She called time on her playing days in the aftermath of Rio and turned her attentions to a successful broadcasting career.<\/p>\n
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Sam Quek celebrates winning gold at the Rio Olympics <\/p>\n
That has involved taking over as a team captain on BBC television show \u2018A Question of Sport\u2019 as well as presenting a host of different sports.<\/p>\n
Quek has now been named as the new host of the second series of Amazing Starts Here, an award-winning podcast series featuring ordinary people doing extraordinary things with the help of National Lottery funding.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cBeing a former athlete, I was massively supported by the National Lottery to get to where I got to. So when I got on board, I was 100% invested and interested in where the support goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRightly or wrongly, I was quite blown away by how many corners of the UK, how many projects, large and small and all the different types of people who helping in their communities. The people we spoke to are just amazing, motivated by their past, people they have lived with or seen or worked with.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spectrum of different projects was incredible and seeing where the \u00a330 million that is raised by players goes, it was really humbling and inspirational. I was blown away really.\u201d<\/p>\n