From Cathy Harris in Sydney

Ask most members of the British public to name a hockey player and it is a pretty safe bet to assume they would come up with Jane Sixsmith. Great Britain’s most experienced player with over 300 caps is set to appear in a fourth successive Olympic Games and, she insists, her last. After an international career spanning 13 years, and including three World Cups, the bubbly Brummie will retire after Sydney.

At 33, Sixsmith may be one of the oldest members of the side but she is arguably the most naturally talented and undoubtedly one of the most respected forwards in the world. At training camps she still finishes top in the short sprint tests ahead of her teenage team-mates, although she does confess to coming last in flexibility trials.

The distinctive mop of curly red hair, her electrifying pace and dazzling close skills, combined with an ever-cheerful personality, have established her as a favourite with spectators wherever she plays. She prefers to think of herself as a provider of goals, but it is her ability to put away the crucial chances that puts her in a class of her own.

Two marvellous goals in the 1991 European Cup final helped England to capture gold, and she repeated the feat with a brace against South Korea in Barcelona the following year as Great Britain won the bronze. In Atlanta four years later, she completed a memorable hat-trick in a decisive clash against Argentina and, at the Olympic qualifying tournament earlier this year, Sixsmith grabbed the headlines when she struck the winner against China to send Great Britain to Sydney.

It has been a career filled with more highs than lows. She said: "My best memories are the medal in Barcelona and getting married to Tim the following year. My Dad said in his wedding speech that it was bronze in Spain and gold today. I wouldn’t change anything and ... I’d do it all again although I can’t see players being able to go on for as long as I have."

Her competitive instincts were honed as a toddler after her parents split up when she was three. "I stayed with my Dad and three older brothers, and I had to be competitive just to survive. But along with Tim, they have all been a source of fantastic support." As a student at Bishop Walsh School, Sixsmith was selected as reserve for the England under-18 netball team one weekend before being chosen for the England under-18 hockey squad. "That made up my mind - it was going to be hockey!"

Fame has helped secure numerous television appearances and be heard on radio programmes throughout the country. She is also in demand to open fetes and speak at school speech days. In June she thoroughly enjoyed a brief conversation with the Queen when she was appointed MBE at Buckingham Palace. "I’ve made a small amount but I’m definitely not rich," she laughs. "And although I’ve been asked to do things I could never have dreamed of, I think I’m still the same person I always was."

In the countdown to retirement, Sixsmith is content to reflect on her career. Great Britain's leading markswoman with 53 goals to her credit, she admits she will miss big competitions. "Training is the hard part and I won’t be sorry to give up that side of it all. I’ve also played alongside some great Olympians, especially team-mate Kath Johnson, and Vickey Dixon and Violet McBride in Seoul, and Karen Brown in the last three Games."

Over the course of battle she picks out the former Dutch players Wietske de Ruiter, Lisanne Lejeune and Annemieke Fokke and the present Germany centre forward, Natascha Keller, as opponents she most admires. And two retired goalkeepers - Holland’s Jackie Toxopeus and Susi Schmidt from Germany - brought the best out of her when it came to shooting.

On her return from Sydney it is back to work at Birmingham City Council and perhaps another club season with Sutton Coldfield. But her immediate goal is to finish with a medal. "This is the best prepared Olympic squad I’ve played in," she said. "There are no weak links; our penalty-corner routine is consistently successful; and there is a core of five or six key players. We all have very realistic hopes of winning a medal."

The Times