New Delhi: The Indian women’s hockey team’s heroic 4-3 loss to Great Britain in the bronze medal playoff was among the most enduring stories of the recently-concluded Tokyo Olympics for Indian fans. The sight of dejected players struggling to come to terms with the result became a haunting tapestry of their campaign, and it took them several hours to eventually reconcile with the grief.
Tuesday afternoon, though, was all about celebration. In the media melee – a majority of whom had only recently woken up to the sport – the crushing pain was temporarily pushed behind the benign answers and repetitive questions, even as the girls enjoyed the rare spotlight.
A full-length television show and multiple video interviews later, goalkeeper and vice-captain Savita Punia’s tired eyes and aching body pined for a comfortable bed. She massaged her spinning head between answering the same questions. There were no complaints though.
“It is absolutely incredible to see so much interest in hockey. Great to see so many people wanting to talk to us and know our stories,” she said.
Five metres away, captain Rani Rampal was politeness personified. Mobbed with selfie requests, autograph hunters, and the press pack, all she requested was a chair to sit on. Questions ranging from absurd to arcane kicked in, as did her years of media training.
“I think we can take immense pride in our performance. From finishing last in Rio to now, this has been a long, tough journey and I am proud of my team,” she said.
“The loss to Great Britain really stung. It took us a couple of days to come out of it. When you get so close to something and it is snatched away, it hurts.”
Savita echoed the sentiment. “There are games where you are down by 4-5 goals, so in those one-sided games, you know what's happening. The bronze medal playoff was a classic case of so near yet so far. We could see the historic medal right in front of us, and then it just went out of our grasp.”
The hooter sounded with the scoreline 4-3 in Britain’s favour, and with it, ended the dream of a maiden podium finish at the Games. As crestfallen players sunk to the turf in that heartbreaking moment, the image of Schopman trying to calm an inconsolable Savita stood out.
Usually, a reticent individual who doesn’t display her feelings on the pitch, Savita reflected on that rare show of emotion with a hint of poignancy. “I know the country watched us weeping and they felt for us, but only an athlete will actually feel what we went through that day.”
“I don’t know if my tears were really visible on TV, but when I went back to the dressing room, I broke down completely. I wept for three hours. I wasn’t in a position to take off my kit, and some of my teammates helped me change,” she said.
For coach Sjoerd Marijne, whose stint with the women’s team ended with the Olympics, it was a bittersweet moment. “When I took over, I could sense that some girls didn’t really have the belief to do well at a stage like the Olympics. From that, to see their emotions after the match against Britain, I thought to myself that the girls have really come a long way. I didn’t say anything to them. I didn’t need to, and the girls know how to handle themselves. Before every match, I told them that they should be able to face themselves after the game. I think each of these girls can look at the mirror with pride,” he said.
Things, however, were slightly different after India’s earlier loss to the same team. Powered by twin strikes from Hannah Martin and a goal each from Grace Balsdon and Lily Owsley, Great Britain steamrolled Rani’s team in their group-stage fixture.
Marijne was not impressed, and he let the team know. “That was a bad game for us. Lots of errors. I was super upset, so I didn’t talk to the girls,” he recalled.
“Yes, the coach was really unhappy,” remembered Savita. “He is not the one to shout at you all the time, but he has his ways of letting you know that you’ve let him down. He didn’t speak to us, didn’t join us for dinner. All that was to motivate the girls to lift their game.”
“We were really lucky to have people like Sjoerd and Janneke Schopman (analytical coach) around us. After the 5-1 loss against the Netherlands in the first match, the coaches showed us videos and told us that we played a very good first half. That gave us confidence and belief.”
Before the virtual eliminator against Ireland, the team promised Marijne that they will return with a win. “It was a do-or-die clash. The pressure was really intense. Before the game, we told the coach that tomorrow's match will be ours. No matter how we play, we will come back with three points. We knew it will be a tough match because Ireland have a solid defence and they don't concede easily, but the win was a turning point.”
It turned out to be a tight, attritional game with India eking out a 1-0 result in their favour. Savita played a stellar role in the win, thwarting nine shots on goal (six field goals and three penalty corners). A couple of matches later, she nullified nine penalty corners against Australia is Indian women entered the semi-finals.
“I know my ‘keeping against Australia is being talked about a lot, but personally, I rate my performance against Ireland above that, in fact, it was my best match at the Olympics. That was some pressure,” she said.
At 31, Savita is the oldest member of the team, and also among the most experienced. She has been part of the team’s upward curve post the last-place finish at Rio Olympics and her experiences make her best suited to drawing parallels between the two campaigns.
“Look, in Rio, we didn’t know how to deal with pressure. We didn't have an experienced player to tell us that you play the same game in Test matches, World Cups, and Olympics. This time, it was different. We spent a significant amount of time honing our mental strength. We had a lot of off-the-field sessions on mindfulness. We did a lot of breathing exercises to keep us calm so all that helped.”
With the Paris Olympics less than three years away, she fancies herself to be very much in the mix. “For goalkeepers, experience really matters a lot, since it is a very high-pressure job. Physically, at this point in time, I am in very good shape and I certainly see myself playing in Paris. I am past 30, so people do talk about my marriage, but thankfully, my parents don’t let that chatter reach me. And even if I get married, it’s not as if I’ll give up my career,” she says.
Rani too has trained her sights on next year. “It is going to be a very important year for us. There’s Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and World Cup, so we hope to carry the momentum to those events," she said.
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