Former Olympic star Sam Quek is front and centre of this year's Grand National coverage having landed a new role with ITV Racing.

The 36-year-old, who won gold with the GB women's hockey team at Rio 2016, has moved into broadcasting after retiring and has since worked on coverage of the Olympics, football, NFL and rugby. She is also a huge racing fan and has owned horses that have run at the Cheltenham Festival and the 1,000 Guineas.

The new role comes after Quek starred on the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, which itself followed stints on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity MasterChef and her appointment as a team captain on a revamped Question of Sport.

However, it has proved to be a controversial move amongst racing fans, leading her to hit out at her critics. Here's what you need to know about the reaction and her life away from the cameras.

Hitting back at critics

After her appointment to the ITV Racing team, Quek faced criticism from racing fans who claimed it had "ruined" the Grand National, while others questioned her knowledge and expertise of the sport.

Speaking with the Racing Post, Quek addressed the criticism, describing it as "a bit like hysteria", adding: "In every sport I've worked in over the last 10 years, the reception I've been given has always felt quite welcoming.

"So I was surprised by the reaction I got when it was announced I was joining the ITV Racing team for Aintree. I was actually disappointed. My experience of racing to that point had always been so positive, welcoming and inclusive. After the reaction to the ITV announcement, it feels like that has been flipped on its head."

She added: "I started getting tagged on social media and things began to build up. People were asking, 'Why is a hockey player doing racing? What does she know about horses?'

"Later in the day I saw someone joking that if I had gone and negotiated a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, some people would still have said, 'But why was she there?' I've even had people saying I'm not from Liverpool just because I now live on the Wirral.

"I'm not there to replace AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh or Alice Plunkett. I'm there to do the crossover work and, to be honest, I think I'm perfect for that. I want to get across my passion for racing to people who might be watching the biggest race in the world for the first time."

Heartbreaking tragedy with husband

Quek is married to Tom Mairs, a prominent figure in the property industry.

The pair have been together for eight years, having got engaged in the summer of 2017 before tying the knot at Chester Racecourse a year later.

Tom, the son of a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, received a £1million gift from his father after completing his studies, leading him to establish Antona Student Properties. He has since become a successful businessman in his own right and even featured on the Channel 4 show Secret Millionaire.

The couple are parents to two children, four-year-old Molly and three-year-old Isaac. However, before they welcomed Molly into their lives, Sam and Tom experienced a heartbreaking loss that "took a toll" on them for a long time.

The Olympian only announced she was pregnant with Molly when she was six months into the pregnancy, having previously suffered a miscarriage while 10 weeks pregnant in January 2020. This devastating event led them to keep their happy news private for as long as possible the following year - but they later decided to speak out to raise awareness about miscarriage and support others who have had similar experiences.

"It's a strange one," Sam admitted during an exclusive interview and photoshoot with OK! magazine. "Obviously it's the happiest moment of our lives so far, but what happened in January took a toll on both of us and we weren't able to speak about it properly.

"This second pregnancy I've stopped myself getting too excited, which is quite sad. But it made it easier to keep quiet because in the back of your head, you think, 'What if?'".

Quek also recounted a harrowing experience during her pregnancy with Isaac, when she was rushed for an emergency C-section just a week before her due date. In an interview with OK!, the former hockey star described waking up to contractions in the night before realising she was bleeding.

"I woke up and felt a bit of a twinge," she recalled. "Those twinges gradually grew stronger and stronger and turned into contractions. I'd been having recurring nightmares that if this birth went to a C-section, I was going to haemorrhage. I just felt like something was going to go wrong for this one, I don't know why.

"Naturally, when you're pregnant and see blood, it's never a good sign," she added. "The consultant said 'just to be safe, we're going to whisk you down for an emergency C-section. We don't want to take the chance that it could be anything sinister, so we would advise getting him out'".

After undergoing surgery with Tom by her side, Quek was overwhelmed with emotion when she met her newborn son for the first time.

"When his little face popped up over the curtain, it was the realisation that he'd finally got here, was safe and was going to join our family of three to make it four," she smiled.

Husband's 'jealousy' over Strictly

Quek has referred to Tom as her "best mate and number one supporter" but admitted ahead of her Strictly appearance that he would be "jealous" of her taking part.

However, this wasn't due to any fears of the infamous Strictly curse, as she clarified that he's actually a huge fan of the dance competition.

"My husband is genuinely really excited for me because he knows how much I'm going to enjoy it," Quek said at the time. "And I think that's what's really special about our relationship. We are solid, and I can't wait to share this with him."

"He might even be a bit jealous, if I know Tom. He would love to be out there doing it – we're always the couple at a wedding who are the last off the dance floor."

On performing steamy routines, Quek added: "I'm not sexy. I can't do the sexy eyes, the body language. So I think that will be a challenge to tap into that side of me."

"If if I try to do it, I'll have to try not to laugh. I was on BBC Breakfast and was trying to show Naga Munchetty my sexy face and he [Tom] texted me, saying, 'Almost.'".