Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hockeyroos gold in Sydney

The 29^th of September 2000 will forever go down as the day the Hockeyroos (Australia’s Women’s Hockey Team) became the nation’s golden girls.

Today marks 20 years to the day the Hockeyroos defeated Argentina 3-1 to become back-to-back Olympic champions and secure the team’s third gold medal from four Olympics.

The anticipation, expectation and pressure from an entire nation may have been palpable on Cathy Freeman as she stepped up to run the 400 metres, but when it came to team sport at Sydney 2000 and pre Games projections of success from the Australian media and sporting public, the Hockeyroos were it.

Australia’s Women’s Hockey Team entered Sydney 2000 as the defending Olympic champions with a master coach in Ric Charlesworth and playing on home soil. A gold medal was seen as a given.

In front of raucous support, the Hockeyroos went through the group stage undefeated before upping the ante in the medal round as they took all before them.

The mission was accomplished with victory in the Final thanks to goals from Alyson Annan, Juliet Haslam and Jenny Morris in front of a sold out Sydney Olympic Park Hockey Stadium.

Reflecting on Australia’s achievement in hockey at the 2000 Games, which saw the Hockeyroos win gold and the Kookaburras bronze, Hockey Australia President Melanie Woosnam expressed her admiration to all who were part of it.

“The Hockeyroos of that period will rightfully go down as one of our greatest national sporting teams,” said Woosnam.

“They galvanised a nation, and under extreme pressure played with confidence and composure on the world’s biggest sporting stage to win Olympic Gold in front of a home crowd. What a very special moment for these athletes, their families and friends. This performance also laid the foundation for women’s sport and inspiring young girls to play and chase a dream.”

“It is easy to forget that the Kookaburras were agonisingly close to reaching the gold medal game and were also exceptional at those Games in taking bronze.

“They then put the disappointment of not finishing on top of the dais behind them by winning gold in Athens four years later.”

There will be a special three-part interview series on the Hockeyroos Facebook page and Hockey Australia YouTube channel from 8pm AEST tonight channel featuring three of the golden girls from that team – Katie Allen, Juliet Haslam and Katrina Powell – sharing their insights and recollections of the Games that took place 20 years ago.

“We’d been dealing with the favouritism tag and high expectations for many years, so for us it was very much about going through the process ready to compete and what we could control,” Haslam recalls of the time.

“We worked incredibly hard and built a real belief in each other. The Olympics is such an unknown…but we all had a quiet confidence in our group and had the talent to win – we just had to go out there and do our job.”

“There had been huge challenges and tough times for so many that year but we worked incredibly hard, we had belief and all got through it together. It was an absolute team effort.”

For Allen, who was aiming to win her first Olympic gold medal, she vividly remembers the energy of the home crowds decked out in their green and gold that spurred them on.

“Our expectation was that we would produce this exceptional level of hockey, intensity and concentration for every minute of every training session and every game,” said Allen.

“I can still remember the noise and the atmosphere as we walked out onto the pitch and during every game…I’d never experienced anything like it. It was deafening…you couldn’t hear yourself think.”

“I felt very privileged to be part of it at the time, but I also feel that very strongly now because I reflect on everything that went behind it to get to that level and that moment. It was really special.”

For hometown Sydney girl Powell, reminiscing 20 years later continues to make her appreciate the Hockeyroos and Australian Olympic Team collective as a whole and acknowledge all of the people that were involved.

“The opportunity to win a second gold medal at a home Olympics in front of the Sydney crowd was incredible,” said Powell.

“I feel really lucky to be involved in our sport and also all of the talented people we had involved at that time. Maybe it was a case of the stars aligning…but we also had a really strong culture. It was a culture of commitment to the team, team first and a really strong drive to achieve the goals of the team.”

The Hockeyroos’ triumph also drew the curtain on the international career of Rechelle Hawkes, who retired with the monumental achievement of winning gold medals at three Olympic Games.