The Duchess of Edinburgh has spoken candidly about the late Queen Elizabeth's reaction to the pressure of the women's hockey final at the 2016 Olympics.
Sophie's memory of the match
Sophie, who is patron of England Hockey, featured this week in a special BBC Radio 5 Live programme celebrating a decade since the triumph. She recounted her experience watching the match in Balmoral with the late Queen and Prince Philip.
Due to the different time zone, the final match started just moments before the royals were summoned to dinner. Sophie said: "I was sitting at dinner thinking 'What's going on? I really want to know what's happening in the game'."
She was so invested in the match that she was sneakily communicating with one of the Balmoral staff members to receive updates. Sophie said: "There was someone helping at the table who was an avid hockey fan, who kept coming in and whispering the score to me."
The Queen's reaction
It wasn't long before the late Queen Elizabeth caught on to her eagerness to watch the match. "We were sitting at the end of dinner, and I was twitching, and eventually Her Majesty sat there and said 'Oh, for goodness' sake, just go'," Sophie recalled. "So I ran through to the library."
The Duchess was then joined by Prince Philip, who watched the remainder of the match with her, but Sophie said there was another onlooker. She said: "I was leaping up and screaming and everything, and the drawing room is right next door, and I suddenly was sort of conscious of this presence, and Her Majesty had come through, and she was standing in the doorway watching, and it was getting so pressured."
"She was watching the penalties. She couldn't cope with pressure. She had to take herself away again. She couldn't cope with it. And I was standing there, leaping up and down, or sitting leaping up and down. My father-in-law was laughing at me."
Legacy of the historic win
Sophie added that Philip was watching her extreme reactions more than the game, as she said she was "literally living and breathing every moment."
The radio programme examines the legacy of the historic win and the importance of supporting grassroots sport, as Sophie joined Olympic gold medallists Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh, both of whom were part of the winning squad in 2016. The defeat of defending champions the Netherlands was Team GB's first-ever women's Olympic hockey gold. The full programme will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live tonight at 9pm.
