Wayne Blazejczyk has everything you need to know about hockey at the Olympic games, schedule, previewed qualifiers and who to watch. The time is ticking away to the Toyoko Olympics, and hockey fans have a lot to be excited about. The biggest event puts hockey on center stage at the greatest sporting event in all time, 12 women and 12 men teams will battle it out for the gold.
Here are the qualifiers for the women:
Japan (Asian Games champions)
Argentina (Pan-American Games)
South Africa (African Olympic Qualifier)
Netherlands (Euro Hockey Championship)
New Zealand (Oceania Cup)
Spain (Defeated Korea in Olympic qualifiers)
China (Defeated Belgium in Olympic qualifiers)
Australia (Defeated Russia in Olympic qualifiers)
Here are the qualifiers for the men:
Japan (Asian Games champions)
Argentina (Pan-American Games champions)
South Africa (African Olympic Qualifiers)
Belgium (Euro Hockey Championship winners)
Australia (Oceania Cup winners)
Spain (Defeated France in Olympic qualifiers)
The Netherlands (Defeated Pakistan in Olympic qualifiers)
Canada (Defeated Ireland in Olympic qualifiers)
Argentina men are looking to defeat Canada. Argentina’s men are defending Olympic champions and looked great at the Pan America Games. The women’s team won four medals in 2000 and 2012. They would love to win another in the Olympics in Toyoko.
The women’s and men’s hockey tournament will begin end of July to mid-August. The twelve teams in the men’s and women’s competition will be divided into two groups of six, with each team playing each other in a round-robin format. Then the top four teams from each group will advance straight to the quarterfinals. Finally, the two semi-final winners meet for the gold medal match, while the semi-final losers play in the bronze medal match. These bronze and gold medal matches will take place first week of August. Hockey at the Olympics in Japan will take place at the Oi Hockey Stadium which is being purpose-built for the Olympics next to Tokyo Bay in the beautiful Oi Central Seaside Park Sports Forest. This is going to be such an exciting event. It will be interesting to see who will defeat who in these match ups. Will it be the men groups that win over the women or vise versa this time round, soon we will find out. Argentina seems to be dominating this game, but the Netherlands and Belgium are not too far behind in the running……It will be great to see these teams come together in Toyoko and play their hearts out.