Hockey in the Olympics

Hi
Hockey was first introduced to the Summer Olympic Games in 1908 in London. Hockey was then removed from the games in 1924 in Paris due to the lack of international sports structure but was put back in the games four years later in Amsterdam for good. However, at this time it was only a mens sport. Women first played hockey in the Olympics in Moscow in 1980. For a long period of time India and Pakistan dominated the gold medal at the games but that soon changed when in 1976 for the first time the games were played on artifical turf or "astro". This was very different to what the South Asian players were used to playing on grass the whole time and they dropped away from the poll position. In their place countries from the Southern Hemisphere such as Australia, New Zealand and Argentina and countries from the Northern Hemisphere such as The Netherlands and Germany went to the top and have stayed there ever since.

Bye