FROM a back garden in Odiham to winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics 20 years later – that was the sporting journey for Great Britain’s hockey ace Alex Danson.

The Southampton-born striker, who was the team’s joint-leading goal scorer, first picked up a hockey stick at the age of seven, playing with her mother in the north Hampshire village.

At the time she was a pupil at Buryfields Infant School in Odiham and little did she know that two decades later she would be in the Riverbank Arena, rocking the London 2012 Olympics and winning a medal.

Danson, 27, whose parents still live in Reyntiens View, Odiham, said: “It has been a 20 year journey and the last few weeks have been unbelievable. I was really looking forward to the Olympics being in London, but the support and noise was just phenomenal. The arena was packed out for every game and it was like having an extra player.”

With a busy schedule of a game every other day, the hockey players were unable to see any other events, but they were aware of what was going on elsewhere and Danson said: “You could feel the momentum building as GB started to win medals. We really wanted to be a part of it and in the end we did that.” Great Britain’s hockey women won their bronze medal thanks to a 3-1 victory over New Zealand - a game in which Danson scored the opening goal.

This made up for the disappointment of losing the semi-final game to Argentina 2-1, a game in which the Odiham ace again found the back of the net.

In total the former Farnborough Hill School student scored five times and was the team’s joint top goal-scorer with Crista Cullen. Danson said: “It was devastating losing the semi-final, but was just brilliant to still win an Olympic medal and no one can take that away from me. If you take a picture of the medal at a certain angle it looks like gold and that makes me smile.

“It is still sinking in if I am honest – it still feels like a dream, but it was amazing.”

Looking to the future, there is the European Championship next year and then the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Then there will be a World Cup, before the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro and Danson is not ruling herself out of going to Brazil.

The Odiham star said: “Having now got the Olympics bug I really want to do it again.”

“I think we can build on this and take the next step up. Of course it will depend on funding, but the results have justified that and I really hope we have inspired another generation.”