Can Indian hockey make it count at the Tokyo Olympics?

Tokyo Olympics - Both men and women can create history in 2021

Tokyo Olympics - Time for both teams to create history

Both Indian hockey teams are not only Asian powerhouses once again, but have also regained the status of "giant killers." As such, both have a golden opportunity of creating history at the Tokyo Olympics with a podium finish.

The team will have the right mix of youth and experience. This has been extremely beneficial since Team India broke their medal drought in 2018. Under the leadership of Jude Felix and Balbir Singh Saini, Team India won their first medals in Olympic hockey at any level since Moscow in 1980. Both teams entered the finals on debut and went down fighting against the respective gold medalists.

Though Indian men no longer have the benevolent guidance of Harendra Singh, the Indian eves are luckier. The women's players are still being coached by Sjoerd Marijne, the man who changed India's women's hockey for the better.

He is the man who, in 2018, led the women to their first knockout in the FIH World Cup since the 1974 World Cup. Though India lost to Ireland in the quarter-finals, they at least went down fighting, and the Indians even went on to clinch a silver medal at the Jakarta Asian Games.

The only thing the teams need to maintain is their tenacity and control their desperation in the dying minutes. This is something which has consistently denied them a medal at the Olympics.