Bigger and better things in store for Indian women's hockey, asserts Salima Tete
Even though the Indian women's hockey team could not win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, they proved to the world that they are constantly improving and are eager to shine on world stage. Salima Tete, the 19-year-old, who caught everyone's attention, stated that better results will come in future.
Indian women's hockey team had a great campaign at the Tokyo Olympics, where they managed to make it to the semi-finals of the competition. In the quarters, they got the better of a strong side like Australia. Salima Tete, the midfielder from Jharkhand played a crucial role in Tokyo, in the results the team could get. Now that the next Olympics is upon us, Tete sees a bright future for this team.
"Our performance in Tokyo is slowly starting to sink in now. We were really dejected when we lost to Great Britain in the Bronze Medal match, but now we are seeing the positives from the tournament. We may not have won a Medal, but we have certainly gained a lot of confidence from the way we played in Tokyo and it's definitely going to help us to grow as a team and produce much better results in the future," said the 19-year-old.
She also sees it as a big plus to have played in the Olympics at such a young age. "The Olympic Games is the biggest tournament for any sportsperson and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity of performing for my country at the biggest of stages. I have learned a lot by playing in high-pressure situations and I am certainly going to use my learnings in the upcoming competitions. One learns a lot when one is against the best and we are very happy with the way we gave a tough fight to each of our opponents in the knock-out stage of the Tokyo Games," said the Midfielder.
Highlighting what worked for the entire team, she said, "We always found a way to push the ball forward and attack our opponents in the Olympics. We created many goal-scoring opportunities and ensured that we utilized our Penalty Corners well. And also we gave everything we had on the pitch and never gave up, no matter what the situation was. The never-give-in attitude helped us to stay in the moment and keep fighting against our opponents until the final whistle was blown."