Just six months before the Olympic Games, the different disciplines are beginning to define details towards
Paris 2024
.
In this context,
field hockey
is not far behind, but the teams that will participate in both the women's and men's branches already know the rivals they will face in their respective group stages, which will kick off the dream of the gold medal shared by Lionesses and Lions.
The formation of the zones was carried out once the 12 teams that will be present in the French capital were defined.
When the quotas were filled, the countries were divided into two zones of six teams that sought to have as much equality as possible.
This was made clear by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), by confirming that
the distribution of those selected in each group corresponds to their position in the world classification
, as it was formed until January 21, at which time they finished the pre-Olympic tournaments will be held.
The Lionesses
, who are third in the global table and have just won the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 by losing in the final against the Netherlands, share a group with the second place,
Australia, Great Britain as sixth, Spain occupying seventh position , the United States and South Africa
, as tenth and eleventh, respectively.
The Lionesses are already beginning to dream of Olympic gold.
Photo Twitter @ArgFieldHockey
On the other hand, group A has the Netherlands as the top candidate, the first in the ranking and which will seek to defend the gold won in the Tokyo event in Paris.
There they will meet the fourth team in the classification, Belgium, Germany (5th), Japan (8th), China (9th) and the host France (12th).
Those who qualified for the Olympic Games through the Pre-Olympic Games held in Valencia were Belgium and Spain, who played the final decided in favor of the Belgians (1-2), and Great Britain, which won bronze in the last Games in Tokyo 2020. and that won the third place match against Ireland (1-2).
The Lionesses should not have competed in this competition because they had secured their classification well in advance by winning the gold medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. There they beat the United States 2-1 in the final.
The rest of the teams that followed in the same footsteps as Argentina, as continental champions, were Australia, China and South Africa.
Then, the Netherlands did so as the current Olympic and world champions in 2022. In addition, France manages to be present as the host country of the competition.
The Lionesses qualified as Pan American champions.
Photo Maxi Failla
The Paris Olympic hockey tournament will be played between Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, August 9, when the women's final will be played, one day before the men's.
The competition will be held at the Yves-du-Manoir stadium, which already hosted the Parisian Games a hundred years ago in 1924.
Although the qualifiers have just been defined, Las Leonas have already started their preparation to seek the long-awaited gold medal.
That is why on January 16 they began their season to arrive in Paris in the best way.
The Lions group
Just as the FIH defined the qualifiers for women's field hockey, it also did so with the men's field.
Thus, following the same group division criteria, the five teams that The Lions will face will be
Belgium -defending champion-, India, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland
.
They also make up group B.
Los Leones, Pan American champions in Santiago 2023. Photo Felipe PoGA/Santiago 2023 via Photosport
Zone A will be made up of the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France and South Africa.
It is worth remembering that Argentina also achieved its classification in advance by taking first place in the 2023 Pan American Games, when it beat Chile, the local team in the competition, 3-1.
With information from EFE