Mary, who was closely involved with the women’s hockey team before the Rio Olympics in 2016, made her international debut in 1992.
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The Indian women’s hockey team can end up on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics if they could improve their game just a little bit more, said former goalkeeper Helen Mary. Speaking on an Indian Hockey podcast, Mary said that she was very impressed with the team’s performances against Argentina and Germany. She believes that the side is 90% ready for the Games and only need a little bit of fine tuning to clinch a medal at Tokyo. Mary has had a good career with the national side and believes that the current squad has enough potential to make the country proud at the Games.
“The way they played in Argentina and Germany recently, I feel they are 90 percent ready, some fine-tuning of their game in the upcoming weeks and I surely believe they can create history in Tokyo. The tri-colors will fly high in Tokyo,” Mary said.
“The way they played in Argentina recently, even though they couldn’t register a win against the world No 2 squad, the style they played and the confidence they showed while playing against the home team on their home ground, was something I have never seen in them before,” she added.
She observed the differences between the support staff during her playing days and of the present, stating that there was a more systematic and scientific approach.
“There is a stark difference in how the teams train today and how we trained. The approach they have now is very scientific and it’s great that the team has a big support staff who look into every small detail right from fitness, diet, recovery to workload every week,” she said.
The Indian women’s hockey side has made impressive improvements in their game for the last three of four years, and currently are one of the most talented sides in world hockey today. India has always had a proud history when it comes to hockey on the global stage, and these layers will have a chance to etch their names in the history books in a few weeks’ time.
Mary was closely involved with the women’s hockey team before the Rio Olympics in 2016, made her international debut in 1992. She might not have won an Olympic medal in her decade-long career, but it is still laden with honors. She won gold medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and at the 2004 Asia Cup, and the silver medal at the 1998 Asian Games.
