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| Hockey in Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||
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Ever since India has been contesting at the Olympics, Hockey is the only sport which has won Gold medals, that too not once or twice, but eight times, with 6 of them coming consecutively. Between 1928-1956 India at the Olympics, won the gold medal consecutively, 6 times. India played 24 Olympic matches, won all 24, scored 178 goals (at an average of 7.43 goals per match) and conceded only 7 goals. The two other gold medals for India came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics. For over 20 years, the only triple gold medallists for India were the `Hockey Wizard` Dhyan Chand and goalkeeper Richard James Allen (1928-1936). After the 1956 Olympics, Balbir Singh Sr., Randhir Singh Gentle and Ranganathan Francis became the other triple gold medallists for India (1948-1956).
2. Los Angeles Olympics of 1932: The 1932 Olympics witnessed couple of world records created by Indians that still stand unbroken. The biggest score in an international hockey match is the 24-1 victory of India over the USA, played on August 11, 1932. The record for the most number of goals scored in a single hockey match belongs to Roop Singh, who slammed in ten goals in the 24-1 rout of USA. India scored 24 goals in the 1932 Olympics, of which the brothers popularly known as the "hockey brothers" scored 25 of them. They were, Left- in Roopsingh (10) and Centre Forward Dhyan Chand (14). The hockey brothers went on to represent India in the 1936 Olympics also, winning yet another gold medal for India. In the 24-1 victory against the USA, there is a very amusing tale about the solitary goal scored by the Americans; The defenders had decided to let the Americans have a run, but when they looked behind, there was no goalkeeper. The Indian goalkeeper Richard Allen was signing autographs behind the goal post! India`s record in the 1932 Olympics at Los Angeles:  3. Berlin Olympics of 1936: The Indians, this time led by the wizard Dhyan Chand himself, did not receive an altogether pleasant welcome in Germany. Just a day after their arrival in Germany, they lost against a German side, 4-1. India beat Hungary 4-0, United States 7-0 and Japan 9-0. Dara joined the team for the 10-0 massacre of France in the semi-finals. Indians had not conceded a single goal in their march to the finals.
India met Germany in the final on August 15, 1936. A crowd of around 40,000 people, the biggest crowd till then to witness an Olympic hockey match, had gathered. Among the audience was the ruler of Baroda, the princess of Bhopal and other Indians who had travelled from the Continent, and of course Hitler, who left the match midway, disgusted at Germany`s plight. India was up by 6 goals in the finals. The Germans decided to play a rough game and went after Dhyan Chand, which resulted in a broken tooth for the Indian captain, due to the German goalkeeper. Coming back after receiving first aid, Dhyan Chand, now playing barefoot instructed his team to go easy on goals. As the stunned crowd watched, the Indians repeatedly took the ball up to the German circle and then back passed to mystify their opponents. India vanquished Germany 8-1 in the finals to win its third successive Olympic gold medal. The supreme tribute to Dhyan was by a sports club in Vienna, which built a statue of Dhyan Chand with four hands and four sticks. To the Viennese, no man with two hands and one stick could have played the way Dhyan Chand did. India`s record in the 1936 Olympics at Berlin: 4. London Olympics of 1948: A lot of events occurred between the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and the London Olympics in 1948. India got its independence, but suffered a devastating partition, where many Anglo-Indians left the country and a number of Muslims migrated to Pakistan. India lost a rich recruiting ground for hockey talent. A brand new Indian team left for London, without a single player who had played in an earlier Olympics. The captain of the Pakistan hockey team in the 1948 Olympics was A. I. S. Dara who had represented India in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Besides Dara, Paul Peter Fernandes and Bhopal`s Akhtar Hussain and Latif-ur-Rehman, have represented both India and Pakistan in the Olympics. India defeated Austria 8-0 in their first match. India followed up this victory by defeating Argentina 9-1, Spain 2-0, and Holland 2-1 to enter the finals. India faced England for the first time in an Olympic hockey match on September 12, 1948, at Wembley grounds, in the Olympic hockey final. India defeated Britain 4-0 to win its fourth consecutive gold medal. This medal is extremely special for India, as it is the first gold medal won by India under the Indian tricolour. Balbir Singh Sr.excelled as a centre-forward and scored 2 goals for India, while Pat Jansen and Trilochan Singh scored the other two. India`s record in the 1948 Olympics at London:  5. Helsinki Olympics of 1952: India defeated Austria 4-0 and Great Britain 3-1 and stormed to the finals. Holland challenged the Olympics champions but lost 1-6 and India won the hockey crown for the 5th time in a row, in 1952 Olympics held at Helsinki, Finland. Balbir Singh Sr. scored 9 goals of the 13 scored by India, including 5 of the 6 goals in the final. Chinnadorai Desamuthu became the youngest gold medallist for India. He was 19 years and 272 days when India won the Olympic title in the Helsinki Games.
India`s record in the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki: 6. Melbourne Olympics of 1956: 12 teams, were divided into 3 groups in the 1956 Olympics. India won all the group matches, beating Afghanistan 14-0, USA 16-0 and Singapore 6-0. When they entered the semi finals India had scored 36 goals in 3 games, with no goals against. India then scraped past Germany with a 1-0 victory in the semi-finals. For the first time, India met Pakistan, in the 1956 Olympic final. Midway through the second half, India was awarded a penalty corner. The ball was pushed out by Udham Singh and stopped by Raghbir Singh Bhola. Randhir Singh Gentle took the shot. A Pakistani defender failed to trap it cleanly and allowed the ball to trickle over the goal line. This goal turned out to be another goldwinner, for the sixth time in a row, until then a record for any country in any team sport in the Olympics. Inside-left Udham Singh scored 15 goals for India in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics - the highest tally by an Indian at an Olympics till that date. India`s record in the 1956 Olympics at Melbourne: 7. Tokyo Olympics of 1964: The Tokyo Olympics were the first Olympics to be held on Asian ground. The team went on a two-and-a-half month tour to New Zealand and Malaysia before heading to Tokyo. In the pool matches, India finished at the top with 12 points. India beat Belgium 2-0, was held to a draw by Germany and Spain, beat Hong Kong 6-0, Malaysia 3-1, Canada 3-0 and Holland 2-1. In the semi-final, India beat Australia 3-1 to set up their third consecutive clash with Pakistan in the Olympic finals. Pakistan had defeated India 1- 0 in the 1960 Rome Olympics, to end India`s Consecutive Olympic victory series. The final was played on November 23, 1964, at the Kamazawa Park in Tokyo. The first half was played at a scorching pace but no goal was scored. There was an unruly incident with some of the Pakistanis attacking the Indian players. The match was briefly interrupted for the tempers to cool down. The forward line comprising Harbinder Singh and Joginder Singh was irresistible that day. 5 minutes into the second half, a penalty corner was awarded to India which was taken by India`s `Rock of Gibralter` Prithipal Singh. Prithipal had been fantastic in the Tokyo Olympics thus far, and had scored 11 goals. However, this penalty corner was to be his most important. His stinging shot was deflected off the goalkeeper`s pad and stopped by Pakistan`s full back Munir Dar with his foot. Centre-half Mohinder Lal converted the resultant penalty stroke in the 41st minute to give India a 1-0 lead. IHF President Ashwini Kumar did the running commentary for Akashvani in the final at Tokyo. Each move forward by India was a potential goal in his eyes. And when Mohinder Lal converted the penalty stroke, a hysterical Ashwini Kumar cried himself hoarse. Pakistan fought back ferociously in the closing stages of the match and gave India many anxious moments. Shankar Lakshman, the Indian goal Keeper, played superbly and magnificently saved two penalty corner hits. India held on to its slender lead to win its seventh gold medal in eight Olympic games. Shankar Lakshman, one of India`s best ever goalkeepers, was declared the Man of the Match.  8. Moscow Olympics of 1980: 9 teams from the 1976 Montreal Olympic hockey competition did not compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympic hockey tournament. The boycotting teams included the top 3 teams at Montreal - New Zealand (gold), Australia (silver) and Pakistan (bronze). European hockey powerhouses Germany, Holland and Great Britain also did not compete in this boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games. India had fared very badly in the Montreal Olympics; they had come down to the 7th position. The Moscow Olympics hockey competition was played on Poligras fields laid at the Dynamo and Young Pioneers clubs.
In a greatly weakened field of participants, India thrashed last minute entry Tanzania 18-0 in its first match. India scored 5 goals in 5 minutes. This huge victory over Tanzania was the second biggest score in Olympic hockey, after the 24-1 victory by India over USA in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. India was lucky to get away with a 2-2 draw with Poland in the next game, with Merwyn Fernandes equalizing for India with only 5 seconds to spare. India had another lucky 2-2 draw with Spain, with the equalizer coming in the last 4 minutes. After surviving these hiccups, India beat Cuba 13-0 and hosts USSR 4-2 to come second in the pool (behind Spain) and qualify for the final. In the final against Spain, India had a rousing start and established a comfortable three goal lead early in the second half. But Spain gamely bounced back into the game with 2 unanswered goals. With Spain raiding the Indian defence, and with only 6 minutes left, Mohammed Shaheed scored a goal. However, with only 4 minutes remaining, Spain scored yet again with their skipper Juan Amat completing his hattrick. The atmosphere in the last few minutes was electric, and India finally won the thriller 4-3, and thus regained the elusive gold after 16 long years. Spain had to be content with the Fairplay Trophy. The 16 goals scored by centre forward Surinder Singh Sodhi in the 1980 Moscow Olympics is the highest tally by an Indian in an Olympic hockey competition. It beat the earlier record of 15 goals set by the great Udham Singh in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. India`s record in the 1980 Olympics at Moscow: However, about 26 years have passed and India has never got any Olumpic medal, after its previous wins. Since the 1970`s Australia, The Netherlands, and Germany have dominated the sport at the Olympics. | |||||||||||||||||||
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1. Amsterdam Olympics of 1928: The Amsterdam Games became the first stage, for the wizardry of Dhyan Chand. The wizardry was not only meant for the spectators, but also for the opponents, for during several moments, the opponents were like spectators, with sticks and jerseys, as they could only watch Dhyan Chand`s magic and could do nothing about it. He was referred as "The Hockey Wizard" after a sensational feat in the final of the Punjab Indian Infantry tournament in the town of Jhelum. Dhyan Chand then scored three goals in the last four minutes for his side to snatch a dramatic victory. Dhyan Chand was the Star attraction during the Amsterdam games. Richard James Allen, the goalkeeper, did not concede a single goal in the 1928 Olympics. Allen, who kept India`s goal in 3 consecutive Olympics (1928, 1932, 1936), conceded a total of only 3 goals in the 3 Olympics.