India is a hockey country, but for the first time in history, the country is under the spell of women’s hockey. After India surprisingly beat Australia on Monday afternoon, the team of Brabant national coach Sjoerd Marijne (47) is unexpectedly in the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament.
For a long time, the female hockey players in India were hardly looked at. It was about the men: they are multiple Olympic champions, although the last victory at the highest level dates back more than forty years ago. The women’s team never won anything and was just hanging on for a long time. Now that there is a prospect of a medal, the country suddenly warms up to Marijne’s team.
What has happened in the last hours?
Marijne: “I sent a tweet into the world, in which I jokingly let my family know that it will be a while before I would come home. That tweet was picked up by the actor Shah Rukh Khan, India’s most famous actor. Well, now I’ve gone viral with that tweet. Incredible. It is very nice to see how with this team we have been able to please a country that has had a hard time for so long.”
Shah Rukh Khan has 41 million followers. Your tweet has been liked and shared many times in a short time. What’s happening to you?
“No one expected this to happen. Before this tournament we were the number ten in the world, so nobody expected us to make it to the last four. The whole country is now into hockey. Yes, this is quite unique. What is happening now feels like a victory.”
And?
“When I started this job about four and a half years ago, I asked the women what they wanted to achieve. The first answer was, of course, ‘a medal’. I then asked further, I also wanted to know what they wanted to leave behind. And then it came out bit by bit: they also wanted to do something for women’s rights in this country. They want to improve the position of women. They still have things to gain here.”
And will this semi-final place help with that?
“I actually want to stay away from it a bit. I don’t want to make it too political. The point is that these women are going to be appreciated. Look, India is really a hockey country, but women’s hockey has never really been taken seriously. Thanks to this achievement, these women will soon fill roles in this country. It’s about equal opportunities, because that hasn’t been the case in India for a long time. That’s the reality. That these women have the opportunity to change that makes me very proud.
“The women in my team sometimes come from poor families. They had to sacrifice a lot to calculate this. We have been on the training field day and night for months. And they have had to swallow so many disappointments in this process. Again and again we lost games, and then the belief that we could really achieve something is gone at some point. And yet we continued. And now we are here. I don’t even care if we win a medal or not. This team is really going to leave something behind in India. The legacy will be great. That is more beautiful than anything.”
In your tweet you wrote that your family must miss you for a while. How long have you been on the road?
“A total of four and a half years now. In the beginning I was still able to go home now and then, but the past year and a half has been really debilitating because of corona. I’ve been on the road for three and a half months now without seeing my family. Before that I was without my wife and children for two periods of four and a half months. That has been very difficult for everyone.”
How did you keep up with that?
“My wife really got me through it. And luckily we can make video calls. If it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have lasted, I guess. I am really a family man. Now it is nice to see how my four children follow it. Each in his own way. My youngest daughter does not dare to look and lies under a blanket, my second-youngest watches everything and also keeps up to date with my wife and my son and oldest daughter try to see what they can do. But indeed: it will now take a little longer before I see them again.”
And later, if you accidentally win a medal, will you go straight home?
Laughing: “Well, if there are celebrations, I will of course go to India. I think they can live a few more nights at home without me. But that’s the end. I’ll stop anyway. It’s been nice, I really want to go home.”
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