Peter Caruth represented Ireland in the men’s hockey tournament at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

A forward from Belfast, Caruth attended Campbell College and made his senior debut for Ireland in October 2008, going on to accumulate 142 caps. He played club hockey for Annadale and, from 2013, Monkstown – where he won the Men’s Irish Hockey League in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and the EuroHockey Club Trophy.

He was a key member of the Ireland squad during its golden period in the mid-2010s, winning a bronze medal at the 2015 EuroHockey Nations Championship, and his exuberant goal celebrations became a viral moment that introduced Irish hockey to a new audience. In 2022 he became the first Irish men’s international hockey player to publicly come out as gay and only the second Irish male Olympian to do so. In doing so he spoke with great openness about the struggles he had faced throughout his playing career, including managing an undiagnosed OCD anxiety disorder.

He expressed hope that his story would encourage others in similar situations to feel more comfortable in their own skin, and said it was the best thing he had ever done.