What is the origin of field hockey at the Olympics?
Field hockey has gone through history.
According to historical evidence, the sport was played in a crude form 4,000 years ago in Egypt as well as in Iran and Ethiopia, well before Christ.
The Romans, Greeks and Aztecs then took up the torch before the 16th century.
After being popularized in England in the mid-19th century, the first federation was founded in 1876 in the United Kingdom.
And it was in 1908 that the discipline was included in the Olympic program in London.
But from 1908 to 1980, only a men's tournament existed.
From this date and during the Moscow Games, a women's competition will appear.
The latter will become very important since among the 30 million players in the world, 51% are women.
Since 1928, field hockey has never left the Olympic Games program.
To discover
Paris 2024: the map of Olympic sites
What are the best countries?
Overall,
India
dominates the Olympic medal table with eight gold medals, one silver and three bronze (from 1908 to 2020).
Behind, we find the
Netherlands
with 18 medals (six gold, six silver and six bronze) as well as Australia
(
four gold, four silver, five bronze), in third position.
Note that
France
has never won a single medal in the history of this discipline.
Among the men, India is still in first position (12 medals in total including four gold) while Pakistan follows
(
eight medals, three gold, three silver, two bronze) and England (three in gold, two in silver and four in bronze).
Among women, we do not find the same domination of these countries.
It is the Dutch who are in first position (nine medals including four gold, two silver and three bronze), ahead of Australia (three medals) and
Germany
.
At the Rio Games in 2016, Argentina
beat
Belgium
in
the final (4-2) before the Belgians, during the last Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, won the title against Australia on penalties among the men.
Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are therefore among the favorites for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. On the women's side, Great Britain had tamed the Netherlands before the latter took revenge in 2020 against the 'Argentina.
The Argentines, the Dutch and the United Kingdom are listed as the favorites.
But in this sport, there are many surprises…
What are the rules of field hockey?
Let's start with the basics.
On a field 91m long and 55m wide, two teams of 11 players each compete.
These 11 players include a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and attackers.
Two cages oppose each other and each of the two teams must manage to score using a hook-shaped stick.
Please note that the matches are played on wet synthetic turf.
Only the goalkeeper, when he is in his zone (like in football or handball), can touch the hard ball with his hands or foot.
Balls in the air are permitted but regulated, for safety.
Two referees supervise the match.
Contact is prohibited and players can only use the flat side of their stick.
For a goal to be scored, the ball must be touched by an attacking stick in the opposing sending circle.
In the event of a tie in a knockout match, shoot-outs must be taken.
During these, five players face off alternately against an opposing goalkeeper in the designated sending zone.
The player must start from the 22.90m line and has eight seconds to score.
Field hockey vocabulary
Shoot-out
: Following a draw at the end of regulation time, the players participate in the shoot-out, i.e. penalties.
Flick
: This term is used when the ball crosses the field passing over the players.
Self-pass
: Once a foul is called, a player is not obliged to pass to a teammate.
And can therefore choose to play it for himself.
What's called the self-pass.
Penalty corner
: Is whistled by the referee if a foul is committed voluntarily or indirectly less than 22.90m from the cage by the defending team.
The shooter then stands 7m away and must beat the goalkeeper with a shot.
Stick
: A stick more commonly refers to the stick.
Bully
: A so-called “bully” engagement is executed to restart a match when playing time has been stopped due to injury or any other reason.
The faceoff is executed near where the ball was located when playing time was stopped but not less than 9 meters from the end line and not less than 3 meters from the circle.
The ball is then placed between a player from each team.
Both players place their sticks on the ground to the right of the ball and then strike once at the same time the flat side of their opponent's stick immediately above the ball.
Then either player is allowed to play the ball.
All other players must be at least 3 meters from the ball.