A decade on, all but one – Lily Owsley – of that golden team has retired from playing internationally.
Team GB would go on to win bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, but from Paris in 2024 they left empty-handed, the first Games since 2008 the British women’s squad had not won an Olympic medal.
Since 2021, GB or England – as they play outside the Olympics and FIH Pro League – have not won a medal at a major tournament, with the exception of Commonwealth gold in 2022.
In the annual Pro League, they have not finished higher than seventh – in a nine-team tournament – in each of the past three editions.
Conversely, the men’s team have thrice finished among the Pro League medals since 2022, and won European silver in 2023.
At the ongoing World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands, England’s men have won both their pool matches so far, while the women beat South Africa but lost to China.
“We do have peaks and troughs in performance. Most nations do if you look at it,” England Hockey chief executive Rich Beer told Sport.
“But when we look at the underlying data and the wider information available to us, we’re confident we can see progress being made.”
But one former GB women’s international, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships within the sport, told Sport that hockey missed a major opportunity to capitalise on its landmark moment.
England Hockey “wasn’t ready to win” in 2016, she said, arguing that the organisation lacked the commercial, marketing and participation infrastructure needed to convert Olympic success into long-term growth.
“We weren’t proactive enough,” she added.
Beer, who was appointed chief executive in 2025, says the governing body did make efforts to build on the success, pointing to the 2018 Women’s World Cup in London and growth in junior club participation. England will also host next year’s European Championships.
“We did our best, don’t get me wrong,” he says.
“We went on to host a Women’s World Cup in 2018, where we had more than 100,000 fans at Lee Valley.
“But I think consistent visibility is one of the biggest challenges facing Olympic sports.”
Beer says England Hockey has changed its approach over the past two years in an effort to raise the sport’s profile, including reacquiring broadcast rights and moving matches away from behind a paywall.
“We’ve done more around the international game to try to raise the profile,” he says. “That has really driven greater viewership of the sport.”