S2H Team

The Indian women’s hockey team’s inspirational show at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has drawn admiration from the country’s top female footballers.

Rani Rampal’s team surpassed all expectations by finishing fourth at the Games and an ever-growing legion of admirers now include Aditi Chouhan and Dalima Chhibber who are training hard for the 2022 AFC Asian Cup.

Aditi, 28, a goalkeeper, was reported as saying that she saw the women’s hockey team make history at the Tokyo Olympics and it inspired her a lot.

Playing for Iceland’s Hamar Hveragerði,  she gushed praise for the hockey team and was quoted as saying: “As a player I could feel that energy, I could feel those emotions and it was just amazing. I am just waiting now for our time to come.”

India will host the 2022 AFC event and the team is looking to put their best foot forward.

Dalima, 24, is a full-back/ central defender and plays for Canada’s Manitoba Bisons. She knows fully well that the U-17 team, preparing for next year’s World Cup, will look up to the senior team for inspiration.

The duo will hope to feed off the energy and inspiration from Rani’s girls in their bid to do well at the AFC event, thereby becoming role models for the junior string.

“I’m looking at it as an opportunity as a step forward, for motivation, better efforts and a lot of more work because lots of eyes and young players looking up to us,” she was quoted as saying while praising exemplary performances by other women participants in the Indian contingent as well.