India's women's hockey team secures Olympic qualification after 44-year wait

At the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, tears flowed freely on the pitch. More than 5,500km away, in India, women’s hockey’s loyal legion, small in numbers but deep in investment, rejoiced. They had watched a team in which skill was matched by fitness, individual brilliance was backed by teamwork and, finally, belief had returned. The gold medal, won after 44 years, was defining. But the direct ticket to the Los Angeles Olympics was unprecedented. Interest in women’s hockey had gathered pace after India’s fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics. Missing out on Paris, however, dented the hopes and aspirations that had begun to build. Then came the well-documented rifts, allegations, a dip in form and a spate of injuries. The shadow over Los Angeles grew darker. Enter Sjoerd Marijne and his support staff. They did not have a magic wand to make the demons disappear. What they brought was a systematic approach to rebuilding the physical and psychological framework of the team. The Dutchman was quick to point out that rebuilding a team is never the work of one person. “There’s a great connection among the staff and the players. I’m doing the interviews, but it’s an achievement from the whole staff. I’m really happy with all the quality I have around me,” he said. But there was another requirement, ensuring the players were fit enough to play as one. That was where Wayne Lombard, the team’s head of athletic performance, came in. He had a broad idea of the physical state of the squad when he arrived. The support staff hit the reset button. Rodet Yila and Caira Yila were brought in as scientific advisers, while the immediate priority was not fitness for fitness’ sake, but getting the players healthy. “Regardless of what the fitness levels were, the priority was to address the injury concerns,” Lombard said.

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That required more than exercises and numbers. The players had to believe in the process. “We had to sit down with the players and earn their buy-in. Helping them understand that the physical side of the game is every bit as important as the technical and tactical side,” Lombard said. He introduced the 30-15 intermittent fitness test to establish the players’ maximum aerobic speed. The test required them to run for 30 seconds, rest for 15 and progress across a 40m grid, with the speed increasing by 0.5kmph at every stage. Muscle by muscle, the players rebuilt their strength. With it came confidence. As the year progressed, India began to look increasingly like a team t rather than a collection of talented individuals. Poetic justice or coincidence, Japan had stood in India’s way in the qualifiers for the Paris Olympics. In Japan, a little over two years later, India cleared the hurdle to Los Angeles.

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