Zara Malseed was a travelling reserve for the Ireland women’s hockey team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where Ireland finished 10th.

She travelled to Tokyo alongside fellow reserve Michelle Carey but did not compete. From Holywood, Co. Down, Malseed attended Sullivan Upper School, where she captained the side that won the Ulster Schools Hockey Cup in 2015. She went on to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with First Class Honours, before returning to Ireland in 2019 to study Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast. Playing club hockey for Ards Ladies Hockey Club, her form attracted the attention of the Ireland coaching staff – assisted in part by Ards coach and Ireland assistant coach Gareth Grundie, also a former Sullivan pupil – and she was brought into the Ireland Under-21 programme in January 2020, moving into the senior squad the following week.

She won her first senior cap against England at the EuroHockey Championships in Amsterdam in June 2021, just weeks before the Games.