Katie Marsden made her senior GB debut in 2016
Katie Marsden has traveled all over the globe since her trip to an ice pantomime at three years old. She hopes to visit Beijing as her next destination.
However, to get there she and her team-mates must achieve what she calls a "mindblowing first" - to qualify a Great Britain women’s ice hockey team to the Winter Olympic Games.
This isn't a team of athletes who are full-time. Many of them work outside the rink, including as a teacher or a sports therapist. They also serve as team leaders for supermarket teams and forensic mental healthcare workers. Marsden is currently in medical school and studying to be a doctor.
The 22-year old told BBC Sport that it would be a great thing because it would show that there is so much talent in the country. It would be wonderful to get that recognition and prove that we can compete with the best.
It would help women's hockey in the UK to be more prominent and get more people from a younger age involved. This is what you need in order to grow a sport.
Since 1998, women's ice hockey has been a part of the Winter Olympic program. Men's have been since 1920. GB has not qualified a male team for the Winter Olympics since 1948, twelve years after it won gold.
The GB women's campaign for qualification to the 2022 Olympics begins on Thursday when they compete in the Nottingham group tournament along with South Korea and Slovenia.
It is a journey that Marsden started many years ago, when she went on a trip to visit her grandparents.
After the panto visit, she and her brother took up figure skating. But Marsden, a pre-schooler who was a "tomboy", quickly rejected it and picked up a stick.
Nearly 10 years later, she was able to take the sport across the Atlantic and stay for many years. At 13, she was scouted to go to a Canadian boarding school. She later enrolled at Trinity College in Connecticut where she could combine her neuroscience studies with her hockey skills.
While it is not something that many British ice hockey players have made historically, there is a "steady flow" of British players moving to America as they realize "there are British players up to the American standard".
Marsden, who was so young when he left home, said that it was "very scary" but that he wouldn't change it for the world.
"I was very shy when I went. But then, I returned and people were like, "oh, she has changed. She's gobby."
"I would not have been able it without my family. My mum told me she slept a lot. It was hard for her to bear the first few months. It was strange when I returned during Covid, as I hadn't been home that long before. So Mum and I were locked in together.
Marsden, now 22, is currently back in the UK as a second-year student at Hull York Medical School. Marsden hopes to one day become a sports physician, a dream she has realized through her experiences as an athlete with the "whole team" of medical professionals.
She initially wanted to become a veterinarian, but she soon realized that she and animals don't get along well.
Marsden would like to become a sports doctor
She is a good friend to her team. Marsden, a three-time World Championship Division II Group B medalist, has been an integral part of the Great Britain setup since 2016.
Marsden and her GB teammates will next compete in the Olympic qualifiers that take place between 7-10 October.
They will also have home advantage because the qualifiers, which were cancelled in 2020, moved to Nottingham after South Korea pulled out of hosting.
A group victory would see GB advance to November's final qualification round where a ticket for Beijing 2022 is up for grabs.
Marsden stated, "We are very, very excited. It's probably more excited now than it's in Nottingham."
"The trip to Korea was amazing, but being able play in front family and friends and getting as many people into the rink as possible is just going to enhance the experience and hopefully give you that extra boost to beat everyone.
"We are confident, it's an excellent buzz, we have a great team with some new faces who have brought some real energy and good energy.
"Everyone is just so excited to get started, especially Covid. It's been quite an awaited event, with it being cancelled last season and us not being in a position to go on ice, and now it's here."
