How India respond to the Ranchi heartbreak will define future of women’s hockey

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Savita Punia, captain and goalkeeper of the Indian women’s hockey team, who was still trying to wrap her head around the fact she will not be going to the 2024 Paris Olympics, with a lump in her throat.
India needed to beat Japan in the thirdplace match of the Olympic qualifers in Ranchi on Friday to book a berth in the Paris Games. But, they lost.

Not qualifying for the Olympics is a huge blow – to the sport and to everyone involved. More so after the high of Tokyo Olympics where they exceeded expectations and came close to winning a medal before finishing fourth.
The sport looked to be on an upswing and the future secure.

Then Ranchi happened. Setting the frustration and pain aside for a second, India did miss three of their best players. The absence of Vandana Katariya, a veteran of 300 matches, was perhaps felt the most.

Deep Grace Ekka and Sushila Chanu weren’t there either and this meant coach Janneke Schopman went in with a relatively inexperienced and young team.
While there is no room for excuses, India should try to avoid any knee jerk reaction. Rather, Hockey India should take collective responsibility and put corrective measures in place.

The anatomy of a disaster of this proportion doesn’t start and end with the coach or players. It has the potential of pushing the sport back by a few years and that’s why a reasoned approach is the need of the hour. Take the case of the mental conditioning coach, for example.

Why weren’t the women given one ahead of the Asian Games, but the men had Paddy Upton. It was only after the Hangzhou disaster that Peter Haberl was brought in. By then the pressure was already on the girls with the Asian Games opportunity missed.