After scoring seven goals for Britain’s bronze medal winning team in Los Angeles in 1984, striker Sean Kerly went one better with eight goals at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Kerly also won silver medals at the 1986 World Cup and the 1987 European Cup and was a member of the Southgate team which won the English Club Championship in 1987 and 1988. In his 74 matches for Great Britain he scored 57 goals and also played for England in 58 outdoor and nine indoor internationals. Extensive television coverage focused attention on his scoring feats and, unusually for a hockey player, he became one of Britain’s best known sportsmen. The strictly amateur nature of the game precluded Kerly from benefiting financially from the publicity and shortly before the 1988 Olympics he lost his job as a buyer for a fashion chain due to demands made on his time by training and competition. The necessity of earning a living, coupled with a certain loss of form, eventually obliged him to take a break from international hockey, although he continues to play for Southgate in the National League.
Great Britain