Black Sticks meddle in Olympian pressure
The Black Sticks women finished 2019 on a positive note – beating Australia to secure their place at the Tokyo Olympics at the first time of asking.
Now they’re on the hunt for the Olympic medal that has eluded them in the past, including in Rio in 2016 and London in 2012, when they made it to the semifinals but finished fourth.
Four players in the 25-strong national squad for 2020 were involved in both those campaigns – Sam Charlton, Gemma McCaw, Stacey Michelsen and Kayla Whitelock.
McCaw and Whitelock, both fresh out of retirement, are also veterans of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and ahead of the start of the FIH Pro League this weekend, McCaw shared what she’d learned from her three experiences at the game’s pinnacle event.
‘‘There’s a lot of pressure and the thing I’ve taken away from that is that it’s not like any other tournament,’’ she said.
‘‘In our last two campaigns we were fortunate enough to make the semifinals and we worked really hard to get there, but we weren’t able to execute when it mattered.
‘‘The key takeaway has been: How do you perform at that level, when there’s the extra pressure of being at an Olympic Games?
‘‘It’s around playing to your strengths and just doing your job really well. It’s not about doing anything fancy or pulling a rabbit out of a hat, it’s just about executing the things day-in, day-out, which you train for.
‘‘It’s made up of small moments and you have to treasure every single moment that you’re on the ball for the whole 60 minutes.
‘‘When I was 18 [in Beijing] I was young and I was just happy to be there, then you realise how much goes into each campaign and how much you just have to treasure it.’’
The Black Sticks women begin the Pro League with a pair of matches against Belgium today and tomorrow at the new National Hockey Centre on Auckland’s North Shore – doubleheaders alongside the Black Sticks men, who play the same opponents.
In its debut season, the Pro League pitted the world’s top hockey nations against each other on a home-and-away basis, but it has undergone a slight
■ Today and tomorrow, Auckland: Men and women v Belgium
■ February 8-9, Auckland: Men and women v Great Britain
■ February 15-16, Christchurch: Men v Spain, women v United States
■ February 28 and March 1, Christchurch: Men and women v Argentina
Black Sticks’ FIH Pro League home fixtures:
revamp, with teams now playing half their opponents twice at home and the other half twice on the road.
The Black Sticks women finished sixth last year, with six wins and 10 losses, but will be hoping to use this year’s campaign to get themselves ready for another shot at an Olympic medal.
‘‘I think we’re looking really good,’’ McCaw said yesterday.
‘‘I’ve only been around the group for a couple of months but the girls are excited. This format gives us two games this weekend and next weekend, then we go down to Christchurch and have four more, so it allows us to play good-quality international hockey, then we head over to Europe.
‘‘The team’s starting to look really good together and we’re working hard, just trying to get those connections. I’m really excited.
‘‘From what we’re doing at training, we’re building really nicely and playing a really exciting brand of hockey.’’
The Black Sticks men had a tough time of it in 2019, failing to win any of their 14 Pro League games, but managed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics by beating South Korea in a playoff.