South Africa

• South Africa joined the International Hockey Federation in 1952. South Africa was banned from world hockey competitions for nearly four decades due to its racial policies.

• South Africa returned to world hockey in 1993. In the Sydney World Cup in 1994, they finished 10th. The 1995 African Champions made their Olympic hockey debut in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where again they finished 10th. South Africa failed to make the cut for the 1998 World Cup at Utrecht. After that, the 1998 Commonwealth Games was their next major hockey tournament, where they beat eventual winner Australia 3-2.

• In a bizarre case, South Africa qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics men's hockey competition, but were barred from participating by their own National Olympic Committee. The reasons given were that the 2000 men's hockey team composition was too white (23 of the men's national squad of 30 were white), not reflecting the demographics of the South African population, and because the team was unlikely to finish in the top nine. Argentina ended up taking the place of South Africa in Sydney.

• Coming into the Athens Olympics, South African Greg Nicol had a strike rate of 236 goals from 193 international matches. Greg top-scored in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 1997 Barcelona World Cup Qualifier and the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games (where he scored 14 goals). Nicol lives and breathes hockey, and has even started a hockey academy in South Africa, with a focus on the u-14 to u-21 age group junior prospects.

Back