After two silvers and two bronzes, Argentina’s hockey lionesses going for gold at Rio 2016
Captain Carla Rebecchi tells rio2016.com her team is getting ready for battle at next year’s Olympic Games
Rebecchi in action against China during the Hockey World League semi-finals (Getty Images/Manuel Queimadelos Alonso)
The Argentinian women’s hockey team is no stranger to the Olympic podium. They have taken home medals at the last four Games, winning silver at Sydney 2000 and London 2012, and bronze at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. At the Rio 2016 Games, they are determined to take the final step to the top.
Known at home as Las Leonas (The Lionesses), the squad started training this month for South America’s first Olympic Games, after winning silver against the USA in July’s Pan-American Games in Toronto, and qualifying for Rio 2016 at the Hockey World League semi-finals in Valencia, Spain, the month before.
The new captain, Carla Rebecchi, is very clear about the task ahead: “Our goal is always to make the podium and, obviously, another goal is to win the gold medal, which is what’s missing in Argentinian hockey,” she told rio2016.com following a training session in Buenos Aires.
Joy and pain: Argentina celebrate their semi-final win over Great Britain at London 2012 (Photo: Getty Images/Daniel Berehulak)
Las Leonas are in the midst of major changes after some of their veteran players retired, including the highly decorated former captain, Luciana Aymar, who was voted Player of the Year eight times by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
The team hopes that the energy of new blood will compensate for the squad’s loss in experience. For Rebecchi, the change in players is all part and parcel of the life cycle of a team, recalling the big squad changes that hockey heavyweights such as Germany and Australia have been through.
“(Consolidating a team) takes time, work and above all training,” said Rebecchi, who has been a ‘Lioness’ for a decade, through the last two Olympic Games and the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio. “You have to give 100 per cent to training so that the younger ones build up experience. International matches and tours also help get the team as strong as possible.”
So far, the other teams to have qualified for the women’s hockey tournament in Rio are New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Great Britain, China, Germany, Australia, USA, Netherlands and India, the latter being the latest team to qualify, leaving just two slots remaining in the line-up.
The Rio 2016 hockey tournament will take place at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Deodoro, the second largest venue cluster for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
