The Odisha Government would felicitate the Tokyo Olympics Bronze medal-winning Indian men’s hockey team in Bhubaneswar on August 16.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday spoke to the team over video call and congratulated the players for their spectacular victory. “Many congratulations to our hockey team.
The whole of India is so excited as well as Odisha of course. We are all behind you and we wish you the very best and we are looking forward to receiving our Indian Olympics hockey team in Bhubaneswar on August 16,” said Patnaik, who was the goalkeeper of Doon School hockey team during his studies there. The men’s team made it to the semifinals after 41 years but lost to Belgium. On Thursday, in an edge-of-the-seat match, India fought back brilliantly from a two-goal deficit to beat Germany 5-4 in a high-intensity goal-fest to win bronze, the country’s first medal in men’s hockey at the Olympics after 1980 in the Moscow Games, when they had won gold. For Odisha players participating in the Tokyo Olympics, the Chief Minister had earlier announced cash award of Rs 6 crore for winning gold medal, Rs 4 crore for silver medal and Rs 2.5 crore for bronze medal.
Notably, when Sahara backed out from sponsoring the national men’s and women’s hockey teams, the Odisha Government had in 2018 signed a Rs 150-crore deal with the Hockey India to sponsor the teams over the next five years. This was the first time that a State Government sponsored a national team.
Odisha has also hosted major hockey tournaments in the last few years, including World Cup in 2018, Champions Trophy in 2014 and Hockey World League Final in 2017.
And Odisha is all set to host the 2023 Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The country’s biggest hockey stadium with a seating capacity of 20,000 is being built in Rourkela for the World Cup.