Target is a medal at LA 2028: Indian women’s hockey coach Marijne
Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne is aiming for the stars with the Indian women’s hockey team, with his biggest goal being to secure a podium finish at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — a feat he narrowly missed at the Tokyo Games.
Under Marijne, the Indian women produced their best-ever Olympic performance by finishing a creditable fourth in Tokyo in 2021.
The Dutchman, who coached India from 2017 to 2021, is now looking to go one step further after returning to the role earlier this year.
To achieve that goal, he has enlisted the help of an inspirational speaker to motivate his players, and the move has already yielded encouraging results, with India winning the FIH Nations Cup this year to earn promotion back to the elite FIH Pro League for next season.
“...There is an inspirational speaker, who talks about scaling bigger mountains like Kilimanjaro. Our bigger goal is to get a medal at the 2028 Olympics, and for that we have to work towards getting to our first base camp. Out first base camp was the FIH Nations Cup and qualifying for the World Cup. If you need to reach the top every time you need to reach the base camp first. We are climbing that mountain together and we are reaching for the stars and if you reach for the stars you will fall on the highest mountain,” Marijne told PTI in an exclusive interview.
The real star for me is to finish on the podium in 2028.
“That is a process, that is about small steps you are taking, it’s about recovery, bringing a good staff together, bringing the right players, mixing talent, mixing seniority with juniors. Everything is about building a culture and every person in that culture needs to be the best version of themselves.” Marijne said his goal was to scale the “Mount Everest” of Indian women’s hockey by winning an Olympic medal, and to achieve that, he has sought professional help to strengthen the players’ mental resilience and motivation. “I spoke about a climber who summited Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro and his name is Hemant Gupta. I invited him to speak with the team about the challenges he faced and working as a team to climb the Everest.” A no-nonsense coach, Marijne has always emphasised building unity and a strong team culture — qualities he felt were missing after his departure following the Tokyo Olympics.
