Field Hockey at the Olympics
Field hockey was first introduced at the Olympic Games for men in 1908 in London. It was subsequently removed from the Olympics at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games due to the lack of an international structure. It was back in 1928 after The International Hockey Federation (FIH) was founded. There is a men's and women's tournament. A men's competition at the Olympics was first held in 1908. There was no hockey event at the 1912 and 1924 Olympic Games. The women's event was added to the program in 1980.
Trivia
- Great Britain won gold, silver and bronze in hockey competition in 1908, the first time the sport was contested at Olympic level, and the only clean sweep in hockey. Great Britain had sent teams from each of the home nations: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which all finished in the top four, and there was no playoff for 4th place so two bronze medals were awarded.
- For a long period of time India and Pakistan dominated the Olympics, with India winning gold in every Olympics from 1928-1956.
- Several hockey records that still stand were set at the 1932 Olympic field hockey tournament in Los Angeles in 1932. The highest score in an international match was scored when India beat the USA 24-1. In the same match, Roop Singh scored a record 10 goals in a single match. Roop Singh was the younger brother of Dhyan Chand, who is widely regarded as the greatest hockey player ever (Chand also played the same game).
- Women's hockey was first introduced at the 1980 Moscow Games.
- Zimbabwe's gold medal winning women's hockey players were each rewarded with an ox when they returned home from the 1980 Games.
The Dutch women's hockey team in London- Olympic field hockey games were first played on artificial turf in Montreal in 1976.
- At Barcelona in 1992, Andreas Keller won a gold medal as part of the German field hockey team, and became the third generation of his family to win a medal in the event. His grandfather, Erwin, earned a silver medal in 1936 and his father, Carsten, a gold in 1972.
- For Rio 2016 the FIH changed the structure of games, instead of two 35-minute halves, the 60-minute games were broken into four quarters. After the first and third quarters each team had a two-minute break, with a 10-minute break at half-time.
- The four best all-time performing field hockey players at the Olympic Games is the male Indian players Leslie Claudius and Udham Singh with four medals each (3 gold, 1 silver), a tally matched by the Netherlands female players Lidewij Welten and Eva de Goede. See more on the Greatest Hockey Players at the Olympics.
Related Pages
- List of Olympic Sports
- More about the sport of Field Hockey
- Field Hockey at the Commonwealth Games
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