Olympic medal hopeful Charlotte Watson was only five years old when she first picked up a hockey stick.
Her big brother had started playing with the hockey club across the road from where her family lived in Dundee.
And young Charlotte wanted to do whatever Schaun – older by six years – was doing.
So she and younger brother Chris, then 4, started going to the Dundee Wanderers children’s sessions near their home in Maryfield.
Charlotte fell in love with the game and continued to “muck around” with hockey through both primary and secondary school.
But her mucking around has paid off beyond what young Charlotte would ever have dreamed possible.
Now 26, she is about the represent the UK at the Olympics as part of Team GB’s women’s hockey squad.
And her brothers and parents Lindsay Watson and Lynda Duffy will be there to cheer her on at Paris 2024.
Charlotte, who has 91 caps for Scotland and competed in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, only learned she had achieved her dream of becoming an Olympian five weeks ago.
On the eve of her departure for Paris last Thursday, she told us: “It was a bit of a shock to be honest! You never expect your name to be on the list. To see it was very special.”
‘Chris and I felt left out – we just wanted to copy Schaun!’
She recalled how she got into the sport in the first place.
“We had a family friend who introduced us to hockey and my big brother had been going for a few years.
“My house was literally across the road from the pitch.
“Then me and my little brother tagged along one day.
“Chris and I felt a bit left out. He was four and I was five and we just wanted to copy Schaun!”
Charlotte started playing with Dundee Wanderers twice a week. And she remained with the club for 17 years.
She said: “I think quite a lot of people saw potential in me when I was younger but I was just playing for fun.”
Indeed the family friend who introduced the Watson children to hockey told Charlotte’s father Lindsay they knew from early on his daughter would make it in the game.
When Olympics became a realistic goal
Charlotte herself was around 14 before she realised that hockey could be more than a hobby for her. And she was 17 before the Olympics became a realistic ambition.
She was chosen to play for Scotland’s under-16s when she was 14. She said: “I knew I was quite good then, that I was better than other people and I could probably do something with it.
“But at that age I didn’t realise you could play hockey professionally.
“When I got my first Scotland cap when I was 17 it was around then that I thought it was possible to go the Olympics.
“Before that I was just mucking around.”
Her success is more remarkable given that she had no opportunity to play hockey at school. St John’s High had no hockey team.
Most of the girls Charlotte played with and against as she progressed through Scotland’s under-18 stages were from private schools.
Charlotte said: “There were only a couple of us from state schools.
“I only went to training twice a week. Others went to club training, they went to school training, they had school games at the weekend; they got so much more hockey than me.
“I just played for fun. But it proves you don’t need to be privately-educated to succeed.”
Charlotte was 21 when she was brought into the GB programme, training with the pool of hockey players from which Team GB would be selected.
She moved from Dundee University to Loughborough University where she could study accountancy and financial management part-time and devote more time to training.
Tokyo 2020 hopes dashed by injury
There she played with Loughborough Students team before moving to Holcombe Hockey Club, in London, then her current club, Beeston, in Nottingham.
Charlotte was in a provisional squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were postponed until 2021, but her selection hopes were dashed by injury.
She was extremely relaxed about her Olympics debut for Team GB as we spoke the day before her departure for Paris.
But she said: “Tomorrow it will be different when I put on the kit and then get to where we’re getting the Eurostar with everyone else.
“That’s when it will start to feel real.”
Her first match against Spain is on July 28.
Cheering her on in Paris will be her whole family and lots of friends.
She said: “My brothers have never watched me play a hockey game for Scotland or GB, so they’ve going to see me playing for the first time.
Family and friends cheering her on in Paris
“I’ve got some friends coming too, quite a few people.
“My dad is coming for the whole time, my mum is still negotiating with work. She’ll definitely be there for one game but she hopes to be there for more.
“I think they are just looking forward to going somewhere different and taking in the atmosphere. My dad has already bought tickets for other sports, he’s looking forward to seeing everything!”
Flying the flag for Dundee
Charlotte is proud to fly the flag for Dundee, along Team GB athlete Eilish McColgan.
She said: “I’m very proud to come from Dundee. When I grew up we were quite a hockey city, so it’s nice to be able to make it.”
And she is looking forward to visiting Dundee Wanderers on her return from Paris.
She said: “When I go back to Dundee after the summer I’ll go and help out.
“I owe them a lot!”
Charlotte’s former club coach, team-mate and mentor in Dundee, Vikki Bunce, was delighted to see her among three Scots selected for the 16-strong team.
Vikki said: “She’s done a really good job with a few hurdles along the way with injuries.
“She brings so much to the team, her defensive work rate and capability is outstanding and she has shown what she can do in terms of goal threat – I think her selection is a no-brainer.
“Most of all I’m delighted Charlotte has shown strength of character and gone out to prove her worth, I could not be happier for her.”
Charlotte ‘always dynamic’ – even as a child ‘nothing stopped her’
Former Dundee player and coach Maureen Golden, hockey correspondent for The Courier, is elated and not surprised to see her at Paris 2024.
She said: “I’ve known her since she was a skinny wee girl playing indoor when she was at primary school.
“She was always dynamic, a very energetic child playing and nothing stopped her.
“Once, when she was playing indoors, she must have been 13 at time, the ball came up and hit her on the face.
“And it’s a hard ball we play with. But she she carried on as if nothing had happened!
“That’s the kind of player she is; tremendous skill from an early age and dedicated to doing whatever she possibly could.
“I always thought Charlotte was going to make it; I had every faith in her.”
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