Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katherine Grainger made dames in New Year Honours
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 03/01/17 9:30am
Two of Britain's leading sportswomen - Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katherine Grainger - have been made dames in the 2016 New Year Honours list.
Ennis-Hill retired from athletics after winning a silver medal in the heptathlon at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro while rowing great Grainger, who came out of retirement to compete in Rio, also returned with a silver in what seems likely to be her last competition.
Sheffield-born Ennis-Hill has been Britain's leading heptathlon competitor for more than 10 years, claiming a bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 at the age of 20.
Since then, she has gone on to win three World Championship heptathlon titles, with the third of those having been awarded to her recently after 2011 winner Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her gold medal for a doping offence.
Ennis-Hill was crowned European champion in 2010 and had possibly her most inspiring performance at London 2012, where she joined Mo Farah - knighted in the same list - and Greg Rutherford in winning gold on a memorable night at the Olympic Stadium.
London also hold special memories for Grainger, as she won her sole Olympic gold medal in the double sculls event alongside Anna Watkins at Eton Dorney.
Grainger, a six-time world champion across coxless pairs, double sculls and quadruple sculls disciplines, retired after that victory but, after a two-year break, came back to compete in Rio, where she secured one of the final places in the team.
It would prove to be a successful return for the 41-year-old from Glasgow, who took a silver medal with new partner Vicky Thornley, with the fifth medal of her Olympic career making her Britain's most successful female participant in the Games.
There are also numerous awards for Britain's Olympic winners as well as three leading figures in the world of women's football, Karen Carney, Alex Scott and Sian Massey-Ellis.
England team-mates Carney and Scott, and referee Massey-Ellis are both honoured with MBEs.
Carney has been a regular member of England's squad for more than a decade and showed her class in a Euro 2017 qualifier against Serbia over the summer when she netted a hat-trick.
Massey-Ellis, 31, is one of few female officials in English professional football and returned from maternity leave to her role as an assistant referee this season.
Nicola Adams became the first British boxer to retain an Olympic title for 92 years when she won the flyweight crown in Rio, and she also becomes an OBE having previously been awarded an MBE.
Track cycling star Laura Kenny receives a CBE after winning two more Olympic golds in Rio, as does the world's leading dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin.
Kenny's pursuit team-mates Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald both receive MBEs.
Dujardin defended her individual title in Rio aboard Valegro but now has to think about the next phase of her career without her superstar equine partner, who has since been retired.
There is also a CBE for para-equestrian rider Sophie Christiansen, who took her Olympic gold medal tally to eight with a treble in Rio.
Sailing duo Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, who won gold in the 470 class, are also honoured with MBEs along with Paralympics stars Kadeena Cox, who claimed gold medals in athletics and track cycling, and Ellie Robinson, who won a swimming gold at the age of 15.
Paralympic athletics gold medallists Sophie Hahn and Georgina Hermitage also receive MBEs.
Kate Richardson-Walsh, who captained the Team GB women's hockey team to an historic gold medal in Rio, receives an OBE.
The remainder of the team - Helen Richardson-Walsh, Alex Danson, Maddie Hinch, Sophie Bray, Crista Cullen, Shona McCallin, Lily Owsley, Giselle Ansley, Hannah Macleod, Sam Quek, Susannah Townsend, Georgie Twigg, Laura Unsworth, Hollie Webb and Nicola White - all receive MBEs.
Away from the Olympics, there is also an MBE for motor racing driver Susie Wolff.
