In one year from now – on 27 July 2024 exactly - the hockey tournaments of the XXXIII Olympiad will start at the historical venue of the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium – the arena of the Olympic Games in 1924! - in Colombes, near Paris, France. 12 men’s and 12 women’s national teams will battle it out to imitate the Dutch women and Belgian men who clinched the highly coveted Gold medals in Tokyo in 2021!
Beyond France, 11 teams per gender will qualify, either as winners of their respective Continental Championships (African Hockey Road to Paris, Pan American Games, Asian Games, EuroHockey Championship and Oceania Cup) – all scheduled in 2023 - or through the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualification Tournaments that will be played in January 2024.
For this symbolic day, the French hockey players have recorded a message of welcome to their peers and all hockey fans alike.
FIH President Tayyab Ikram said: “This historical milestone gives us another opportunity to express how much we greatly cherish our long-standing integration within the Olympic movement and our participation as an Olympic sport for more than a century. On behalf of the global hockey community, I’d like to express our deepest gratitude to the International Olympic Committee, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee and the French authorities for putting together such a magnificent event. We’re looking forward to amazing Olympic hockey tournaments in Paris in one year’s time!”
Hockey has been an Olympic sport since 1908. India (men) are the all-time record holders with no less than 8 Gold medals! The Dutch women, who’ve been at the top of the FIH World Rankings for a long time, have won 9 Olympic medals, including 4 Gold! A fabulous number of 4545 goals have been scored in 1133 matches throughout the hockey Olympic history!
As has been the case since Beijing 2008, 12 teams per gender will play at the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey tournaments, with each squad consisting of 16 athletes.
The Paris Olympics will be played on ‘Poligras Paris GT zero’ hockey turf developed by FIH’s Global Supplier Polytan. It is the world’s first carbon zero hockey turf and was developed to help hockey support the Games sustainability goals. As well as being carbon zero certified, the turf is also FIH Innovation certified for dry hockey. For elite events like the Olympics the turf will be irrigated, but for clubs and facilities around the world this unique ‘play wet / play dry’ crossover performance delivers greater flexibility. Hockey is a progressive sport, and the turf has already been installed in 10 countries, showing that the global hockey community is embracing greater sustainability for the sport.
Please visit www.olympics.hockey for the latest news and all the information from FIH about the Paris 2024 hockey Olympic tournaments!
For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.
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