Crista Kerio Cullen (born 20 August 1985 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

) is an English field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 player fullback.

Early life

Her father was a golfer and her mother played professional squash. She first played hockey aged nine, when living in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 until she was twelve. Her parents still live in Kenya where they run the Hemingways hotel near Watamu

Watamu

Watamu is a beach resort on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It lies on a small headland, between the Blue Lagoon and Watamu Bay. Its main industries are tourism and fishing...

. She boarded at the independent Oakham School

Oakham School

Oakham School is a British co-educational independent school in the historic market town of Oakham in Rutland, accepting around 1,000 pupils, aged from 10 to 18, both male and female, as boarders and day pupils . The Good Schools Guide called the school "a privileged but unpretentious and...

 in Rutland

Rutland

Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

. She then studied for a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in Business Studies (Strategy & Entrepreneurship) at the Nottingham Business School

Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...

, gaining a 2.1 in 2006. She works as a Business Development Consultant for The Kennel Club

The Kennel Club

The Kennel Club is a kennel club based in London and Aylesbury, United Kingdom.The Kennel Club registration system divides dogs into seven breed groups. The Kennel Club Groups are: Hound, Working, Terrier, Gundog, Pastoral, Utility and Toy...

. Her brother Gray Cullen played junior rugby for England and in 2009 debuted for the Kenya national rugby union team

Kenya national rugby union team

The Kenya national rugby union team is the Kenyan national team in Rugby. it is controlled by the Kenya Rugby Football Union.The team participates Confederation of African Rugby tournaments, but has never qualified for the Rugby World Cup....

.

Sport

She made her senior international debut for the England women's national field hockey team in 2003. Also, she was named in the International Hockey federation World Star XI following the World Cup, as well as 2006 Great Britain Hockey Athlete of the Year and Hockey Writers' Club Player of the Year. She participated in the team which won Bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Hockey at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Field hockey at the 2006 Commonwealth Games took place between 16 March and 25 March for women and for men, between 17 March and 26 March. Both competitions consisted of a round robin stage of two groups of five with the winners and runners-up of each group qualifying for the semifinals.All matches...

 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. She is currently playing for Leicester Hockey Club, which is based at the Stoneygate Preparatory School

Preparatory school (UK)

In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...

 in Great Glen

Great Glen, Leicestershire

Great Glen , also known as Glen Magna, is a village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, about seven miles south-east of Leicester. Its name comes from the original Iron Age settlers who used the Celtic word glennos meaning valley, and comes from the fact that Great Glen lies in part of the...

.

External links

• Crista Cullen - Great Britain Hockey Player - Official Website
• Leicester Hockey Club
• Nottingham Trent University
• Team GB
• The Sun August 2008
• sports-reference

Video clips

• Her guide to hockey (BBC) in 2008