TNI Bureau: Despite leading the world in Hockey for decades with complete dominance in Olympics from 1928 to 1964, India had to struggle for 40 years to get a medal before winning a Bronze at Tokyo 2020. The team repeated the same feat at Paris 2024 with back to back medals after a gap of 52 years.
Love him or hate him, you can’t ignore Naveen Patnaik who played a key role in revival of Indian Hockey by providing sponsorship and patronage since 2018 on behalf of Odisha. And, he took the lead to speak to the Bronze medal winning team soon after they achieved the feat.
PM Narendra Modi and Odisha CM Mohan Majhi also spoke to the Hockey team. The Odisha CM announced Rs 15 lakh cash reward for each player and Rs 10 lakh each for the support staff. Amit Rohidas will get a special reward of Rs 4 crore.
People of India have started taking interest in Hockey in the last 5 years or so, thanks to their rising level of performance. India has won the highest number of Olympics medals in Hockey – 8 Gold, 1 Silver and 4 Bronze (total 13 medals).
India won Gold Medals in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, and 1980. A Silver came to India in 1972 while the country won Bronze in 1960, 1968, 2020 and 2024. India’s legendary goalkeeper Sreejesh has bid adieu to Hockey with this win. However, Harmanpreet Singh continues to lead from the front and India expects to continue the momentum in Hockey in the days to come.
