Professor Mary Nevill OBE
From gaining 180 international caps for England and GB in field hockey, to becoming European Champion and member of the first British women’s team to play the sport at an Olympic Games in Seoul 1988, Professor Mary Nevill OBE has shown huge commitment to sport during her career. She captained the GB Hockey team to win bronze at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, before transitioning into a distinguished career in academia and coaching.
She was Head Coach for Loughborough Students Women’s Hockey, and subsequently became Director of Hockey, a role she held for over 20 years at the University. During this time, she took Loughborough Women from the Leicestershire League into the Women’s Premier League – the top league in England and amassed 13 British University (BUCs) titles. She also coached the England Women’s U21 side.
As an expert in exercise physiology, she led and collaborated on some of the most influential papers in sprint and intermittent exercise. Her leadership as the Director of the Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough from 2001-2013 advanced the role of sport and physical activity for the health, performance and development of young people. The collaborative work of the Institute directed charities and government towards effective interventions and policies to improve the health, sport participation and experiences of children and adolescents.
Professor Nevill has contributed generously and extensively to national level committee work. She served as a member of the UK Sports Council, Chair of the International Teams Committee for the English Hockey Association, and as Deputy Chair for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences from 2013-2016.
In 2014, Mary was appointed as Head of Department of Sport Science at Nottingham Trent University. In the seven years to her retirement in March 2021, she marshalled an extensive growth within the department through a two-and-a-half-fold expansion of student and staff numbers.
Befitting her distinguished career across key sectors in sport, Mary was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in 2019 for services to sport and sports science.