The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams had one of their best performances at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. After a long wait of 41 years, the men’s team won a bronze medal, while the women’s team finished fourth, their best-ever finish in the Olympic Games 2020.
Exclusive conversation with NDTV
PR Sreejesh and Savita Punia, goalkeepers for both teams, revisited their Olympic journey in an exclusive interview with NDTV after their outstanding performance in Tokyo Olympics 2020. Sreejesh also explained why he didn’t witness the tense bronze medal match between the Indian women’s hockey team and the United Kingdom (Great Britain).
Hockey champion PR Sreejesh revealed the secret
According to Sreejesh, who spoke to NDTV, “When we were watching their semi-finals match, we were preparing for our next game. We were doing a team meeting; we stopped the meeting and put the live telecast on the projector. You wouldn’t believe I never had that much pressure, sitting there and watching that match. I never felt that pressure even when playing World Cup or Olympics or anything. I could literally see my heart beating outside my t-shirt,”
Sreejesh continued, “Believe me, the next match, when they were playing for the third-fourth position, I said I am not going to watch it because I will die. I just kept track of the live data to know what is happening,”
Women’s hockey team fails to win 3-4
While the men’s team won a thrilling bronze medal match against Germany, the women’s team came agonizingly close to winning their bronze medal game by one goal. They finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics after losing 3-4 to Great Britain.
Women’s hockey team goalkeeper Savita Punia expresses dissatisfaction with her performance in Tokyo Olympics 2020
Savita Punia, a goalkeeper for the women’s hockey team, expressed dissatisfaction with her performance at the Rio Olympics and wanted to improve for the squad in Tokyo. But, given how things turned out, she was unable to manage her emotions on the field.
Savita expressed her thoughts “Last Olympics didn’t turn out to be good for the whole team; especially I wasn’t happy with my performance. I was focused on doing well this time and the way it ended, I just couldn’t control my emotions and broke down”.