Governing body FIH | Events 2 (men: 1; women: 1) | |
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Hockey, or more specifically, field hockey, was introduced at the Olympic Games as a men's competition at the 1908 Games in London, with six teams, including four from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Contents
History
Field hockey was removed from the Summer Olympic Games at the 1924 Paris Games because of the lack of an international sporting structure. The International Hockey Federation (FIH, Fédération Internationale de Hockey) was founded in Paris that year as a response to field hockey's omission. Men's field hockey became a permanent feature at the next Olympic Games, the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.
For a long time, India dominated the Olympics, winning the men's gold medal in seven out of eight Olympics from 1928 to 1964. Later, Pakistan was also dominant, winning three gold and three silver medals between 1956 and 1984.
Since 1968, various teams from around the world have seen gold-medal success at the Olympics. Since 1968, several countries in the Southern Hemisphere have won various medals in men's and women's field hockey, including Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Zimbabwe. A leading group of teams from the Northern Hemisphere has come from the Netherlands and from Germany.
Spain has appeared in the most Olympic men's competitions without winning the men's gold medal, having won silver three times in 1980, 1996, 2008 and bronze once in 1960. Australia had competed in 11 Olympics without winning gold before breaking their streak in 2004.
The first women's Olympic field hockey competition was held at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Olympic field hockey games were first played on artificial turf at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
Until the 1988 Olympics the tournament was invitational but FIH introduced a qualification system since the 1992 games.
Team appearances
# = states or teams that have since split into two or more independent nations45 teams have competed in at least one Olympic Game.
Nations
Only players who participated in at least one game are counted.
* Four teams competed: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Team appearances
# = states that have since split into two or more independent nationsAustralia and the Netherlands are the only teams to have competed at almost every Olympic Games, except for only one edition; 21 teams have competed in at least one Olympic Games.
Total
* Includes 3 gold medals as British India
Men
* Includes 3 gold medals as British India