\u201cI forgot to reply to that message,\u201d McCaw told the Between Two Beers hosts.<\/p>\n
She explained there was more to the story than simply forgetting. With the Olympics just a week away, she was reluctant to let anything distract her from hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never wanted to let anything get in the way of that Olympic campaign,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot having a partner and being able to give everything at that time was just really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gemma McCaw (left) at the 2012 Olympics. Photo \/ Ross Huggett<\/p>\n
When the podcast hosts pointed out she had left one of New Zealand\u2019s most famous sportsmen on read, McCaw admitted she also wasn\u2019t sure what to make of his online profile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, he had Top Gun as his profile, like Tom Cruise, like Maverick … with the dog tags as his profile picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
After McCaw missed a penalty shootout in New Zealand\u2019s semi-final loss at the London Olympics, \u201cTop Gun\u201d reached out again, saying he had watched the game and talked about his own experience after the All Blacks\u2019 shock exit from the 2007 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019ve seen you\u2019ve missed the shootout and I know the feeling because in 2007…\u2019 and it was quite a lengthy message about what he went through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And again, the All Black captain was left on seen \u2013 but not forever.<\/p>\n
Gemma McCaw with her husband, Richie McCaw, with their baby daughter, Charlotte. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like everyone you know in your life is out of the woodwork messaging you and you actually don\u2019t have any capacity to write back to everyone. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo again I just left it till after the Olympics when I could reply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair eventually got past the unanswered messages. They married in 2017 and now have three daughters.<\/p>\n
The podcast\u2019s light-hearted story emerged during a wider conversation about life after elite sport, motherhood and finding an identity away from hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter three children, at my age, I know who I am,\u201d Gemma said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had to be okay with the person I am, without Gemma the hockey player or the sports person. I\u2019m actually comfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI forgot to reply to that message,\u201d McCaw told the Between Two Beers hosts. She explained there was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9218,11164,1862,10738,101,13557,111,139,69,90,6029,13792,15403,12860,1517,13556,7812,20863,213,17251],"class_list":["post-585652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-before","tag-began","tag-dating","tag-gemma","tag-left","tag-mccaw","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-once","tag-pair","tag-read","tag-revealed","tag-reveals","tag-richie","tag-seen","tag-she","tag-sports","tag-twice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}