Grace Stewart

A love of hockey runs through Grace and the Stewart family, with her two sisters Lilly and Demi also having represented NSW.

On her senior debut at the 2016 International Tri-Series in Singapore, 18-year-old Grace scored a goal to secure Australia a 1-all draw against Germany in the opening round of the tournament.

The forward moved from her hometown Gerringong to Perth in 2016 when she was promoted from the national junior squad and awarded a Hockey Australia Scholarship to train full-time with the senior team at the Western Australian base.

The then rookie from the NSW South Coast proved herself to be quick and agile in the goal circle, helping Australia defeat Great Britain in a six-game series in early 2016. A flurry of goals at the 2016 Hawkes Bay Cup, where Australia secured the bronze medal, cemented her position in the Hockeyroos for the final tournaments leading up to Rio 2016.

Her impressive performance at the 2016 Champions Trophy in London and the International Hockey Tournament in Darwin secured Grace her debut Olympic appearance in Brazil.

Grace and the Hockeyroos advanced to the quarter-finals in Rio, where they ran into a strong New Zealand side and lost 4-2.

She scored a hat-trick against Papua New Guinea in the Oceania Cup in October 2017 and collected more goals in the Test series against Japan in Adelaide a month later.

Grace was a member of the 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medal winning team and in 2019 backed this up with a silver medal at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Pro League.

At Tokyo 2020 the Hockeyroos were undefeated in the preliminary matches and conceded one goal from five outings, progressing to the quarter-finals. The campaign ended with a 1-0 loss to a tenacious Indian team in the quarter-finals.

The result inspired Grace and the Hockeyroos to work even harder and in 2022 they collected bronze in the FIH Women’s World Cup.

Later that year, the Hockeyroos won silver at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. They were undefeated in the pool games and after beating India in a penalty shootout in the semi-final, they went down to England 2-1 in the gold medal game.

Also in 2022, Grace was part of the NSW Pride team that won the Hockey One League Grand Final.

In 2023, the Hockeyroos finished third in the Women’s International Pro League, before clinching a place at the Paris Olympics by winning the Oceania Cup series against New Zealand.

They won the opening game 3-0, salvaged a 1-1 draw in the second before Grace was among the scorers as they beat New Zealand 3-2 to win the final game and seal the series.

In for her third Olympic campaign at Paris 2024, Grace and the Hockeyroos opened their tournament with three-straight wins. They beat South Africa (2-1), Great Britain (4-0) in which Grace scored a goal, and the United States (3-0).

A draw with Argentina (3-3) and a win against Spain (3-1) closed the group stage, with the Hockeyroos advancing into a quarter-final against China. Coached by Australian Olympic champion Alyson Annan, China prevailed 3-2 to end the Hockeyroos' campaign.