Meg Pearce (born 1 July 1994) is an Australian

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player, who plays as a defender and midfielder.

Personal life

Meg Pearce grew up in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. Her father participates in Ironman events, and her mother runs in marathons. Following after her father and sister, both hockey players, she started playing hockey when six years old, at the Doncaster Hockey Club, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. After finishing secondary school, she studied arts at university, and began working as a personal trainer, before completing a double degree in commerce and nutrition. She played on the Under-21 Victorian state team in 2014 and 2015, and played with the Victorian Vipers, before moving to Brisbane. She joined Brisbane Blaze for the 2019 season. She later relocated to Perth, working in marketing for a financial services firm. She is a scholarship holder at the

Victorian Institute of Sport The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succ ...

, as well as a member of

Hockey Queensland Hockey Queensland is the governing body for the sport of hockey in Queensland, Australia. It is responsible for the administration of intrastate competitions, state representative teams, officials and the financial position of the sport. It's loc ...

's High Performance Squad.

Career

Domestic league

From 2013 to 2018, Pearce was a member of the Victorian Vipers in the

Australian Hockey League The Australian Hockey League (AHL) was Australia's premier national domestic field hockey competition.AHL Webpage
D ...

(AHL). Following an overhaul of the AHL in 2019,

Hockey Australia Hockey Australia is an organisation that formed from the merger of the Australian Hockey Association and Women's Hockey Australia in 2000. It is the national body responsible for the promotion, development and administration of field hockey in ...

introduced a new premier domestic league, the Sultana Bran Hockey One. Pearce was named in Brisbane Blaze team for the inaugural season of the competition.

International

Under–21

Pearce made her debut for the Australia U–21 team in 2013 at the

Australian Youth Olympic Festival The Australian Youth Olympics Festival (AYOF) is an international multi-sport event organised by the Australian Olympic Committee for athletes from 13 to 19 years of age. The first event was held in 2001. Editions # 2001 Australian Youth Olympi ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. At the tournament, she won a gold medal.

Hockeyroos

In 2020, Pearce was named in the

Hockeyroos The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos) are, as of August 2023, ranked second in the world. Having played their first game in 1914, and their first Olympic game in 1984, they are one of Australia's most succes ...

squad for the first time. She made her official debut for the team in 2021, during a test series against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

References

External links

* * 1994 births Living people Australian female field hockey players Female field hockey forwards 21st-century Australian sportswomen Field hockey players from Melbourne Sportswomen from Victoria (state) {{Australia-fieldhockey-bio-stub