Sixteen years ago, China’s women achieved their greatest Olympic hockey feat when they claimed the silver medal on home soil at the Beijing 2008 Games.
While celebrated players such as Ma Yibo and Fu Baorong have long since retired, there are clear signs that China are on the rise and that the current generation are capable of shining bright in the City of Light.
Under the guidance of Alyson Annan, a double Olympic gold medallist as a player with Australia and the coach who guided the Netherlands women to World, European and Olympic titles, China have become a force to be reckoned with.
A fifth-place finish in the 2023-24 edition of the FIH Hockey Pro League was China’s best performance to date in the elite competition, claiming wins against the likes of Germany, India, USA and Belgium, the latter being the opponents in their first match of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Sunday (28 July). According to China captain Ou Zixia, the team are very much ready to go.
“I’m very happy and excited to compete in a stadium that has a big Olympic history”, said the 28-year-old, who is competing in her second Olympic Games after representing her country at Rio 2016, on Saturday.
“We are really looking forward to it. Of course we want to get a good result, but to do that we need to focus on every game. Our team will try our best to be as good as possible.” Commenting on China’s ambitions here at Paris 2024, Zixia said: “The first thing we want to do it to qualify for the knockout stages. Once we are there, it is win or go home, but we are aiming for the top four. We are going to fight for every game. We are really looking forward to the first game. We want to show how China plays hockey to the whole world here on the Olympic stage.”
The hockey competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place from 27 July to 9 August 2024. Both the men’s and women’s competitions feature 12 teams, split into two pools of six ahead of quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. For more details about the competition, visit Olympics.Hockey.
