Jamie Dwyer is widely regarded as one of the greatest hockey players and for good reason! His list of accolades makes for a lengthy reading, having achieved success at every major international tournament, with a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, gold medals at the 2010 & 2014 FIH Men’s Hockey World Cups, and gold medals at the 2002, 2006 & 2010 Commonwealth Games!
There are few that can claim to have enjoyed as much success as Jamie Dwyer in hockey. His list of individual honors includes the 2002 FIH Rising Star of the Year, and the FIH Player of the Year award on 5 different occasions (2004,2005, 2009, 2010, 2011); and as everyone awaits the winners of the FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2021-22, we caught up with Jamie Dwyer to discuss his wins in the previous FIH Hockey Stars Awards, and plenty more!
How did it feel to be recognized as the best player in the sport of Hockey when you won the FIH Player of the Year awards in the past?
I appreciate it now more than I did back when I won them. My focus in my playing days was on winning tournaments for the country and when we did that, individual awards came. But now that I am retired and have had the time to look back, it feels really special to have won 5 FIH Player of the Year awards.
Who were some of your role models in the sport as a young player?
My parents were my biggest role models and supporters throughout my childhood. Even when I made it into the Australian team, they always came to the tournaments and supported me. Among the players, the women’s team (Hockeyroos) were really successful while I was growing up, so Michelle Andrews and Alyson Annan were celebrities in Australia and I loved watching them. Among men, Jay Stacy, who won the FIH Player of the Year in 1999. I also enjoyed watching the Netherlands team between 1996-2000. I thought they were rockstars, and I wanted to be like them.
Ahead of the upcoming FIH Hockey Stars Awards, who are the players you believe are the stars of the future?
There are so many good players in every team, it's difficult to name a few. Belgium is currently the best in the world and Antoine Kina has really stood out for me recently and Arthur van Doren, as everyone knows is world class too. Christopher Rühr is a player I like watching too, because you know he is going to take people on, create chances, he is always going to do something good for his team.
You have had such a long and illustrious career in hockey so this is a tough question, but if you had to pick, what was the single greatest moment of your career?
It’s the gold medal we won at the 2004 Athens Olympics. It’s the only gold medal Australian men’s team has won so far at the Olympic games. I watched the Olympics religiously in 1992, 1996 and 2000. So, to be able to go to the Games in 2004 and win it against the Dutch team, who I admired the most, and the player I admired the most in - Teun de Nooijer -, that was definitely the highlight of my career. Other than the Olympics, the two World Cup victories were really special too. The 2010 World Cup gold was especially important, because we won it against Germany after having lost to them in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
The FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2021-22 nominations have been revealed and the voting is now open. Vote for your favourite players here.
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