The team made history when they defeated the three-time Olympic Gold medallists Australia 1-0 in the quarter-final and played in their first-ever Olympic semi-final against Argentina.
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The Indian women’s hockey team fought impressively against the heavyweights in the world at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. The team made history when they defeated the three-time Olympic Gold medallists Australia 1-0 in the quarter-final and played in their first-ever Olympic semi-final against Argentina. The Indian Women’s Hockey Team Midfielder Salima Tete, who played an integral role in India’s memorable outing at the Olympics, recalled her time in Tokyo. She believes that even though the Indian Women’s Team couldn’t finish on the podium, they have shown signs of a bright future.
“Our performance in Tokyo is slowly starting to sink in now. We were really dejected when we lost to Great Britain in the Bronze Medal match, but now we are seeing the positives from the tournament. We may not have won a Medal, but we have certainly gained a lot of confidence from the way we played in Tokyo and it’s definitely going to help us to grow as a team and produce much better results in the future,” said the 19-year-old, according to a release from Hockey India.
Tete further added that she feels blessed to have received an opportunity to play in an Olympics at a very young age. “The Olympic Games is the biggest tournament for any sportsperson and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity of performing for my country at the biggest of stages. I have learned a lot by playing in high-pressure situations and I am certainly going to use my learnings in the upcoming competitions. One learns a lot when one is against the best and we are very happy with the way we gave a tough fight to each of our opponents in the knock-out stage of the Tokyo Games,” said the midfielder.
When asked about the important thing that helped India outperform expectations at the Olympics, Tete said, “We always found a way to push the ball forward and attack our opponents in the Olympics. We created many goal-scoring opportunities and ensured that we utilized our Penalty Corners well. And also we gave everything we had on the pitch and never gave up, no matter what the situation was. The never-give-in attitude helped us to stay in the moment and keep fighting against our opponents until the final whistle was blown.”
Entering the Tokyo Olympics as underdogs, Indian Women’s Hockey Team – with little expectations – went on to create history. They finished fourth, their best-ever performance. The team was competing for the bronze medal against Great Britain. Unfortunately, the match went in favor of the British team but the Indian team put up a very good fight. The scoreline at the end of the match was 4-3 and it was the GB team that bagged the bronze medal. However, the Indian team can be extremely proud of their overall performance at The Games this year.
