Hockey India has released a video to motivate the women’s hockey team for the Rio Olympics on their Twitter account on Wednesday. It is a step taken by the association to motivate the women’s side as they have qualified for the Olympics after a wait of 36 long years.
The last time India’s women’s team had participated at the Summer Games was in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The team had then finished an impressive fourth, just shy of a bronze medal.
The video stars the likes of former men’s captain and current player Sardara Singh and current women’s players Deepika Thakur and Rani Rampal. The 45-second video has been produced to show how the women’s team can match and beat the men’s team.
The short film starts with the women’s national team coach, Neil Hawgood, telling the girls, “we need to get this right!”, as he sees them start play from the half-line.
In the video, the Indian women’s team is practicing against a men’s side while Sardara Singh is watching from the sidelines as he packs his bags and gets ready to leave from training. Rani Rampal starts the attack, combines with Deepika and other teammates before finally beating the goalkeeper in a one-on-one battle.
Everyone at the training, including Singh, applauds the play as the video finishes with a message which implies that this moment has come after 36 years when the Indian women’s team will be participating in the Olympic Games, therefore it is a huge moment.
The women’s team has been working hard before the Olympics, and considering that they won the bronze medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, it is definitely time for the nation to dream big.
