Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980
The 1980 Olympics were first to feature women's hockey, and the first to include Zimbabwe under that name—barred from the last three Olympics for political reasons, the country had last competed as
Invitation and team selection
The
A squad of 16 members, built around the core of the former Rhodesia team,[3] was hastily assembled by Liz Dreyer, the president of the national women's hockey association, who became the team's manager. Every player and official was white.[3] Ann Grant, the team's 25-year-old sweeper, was appointed captain. Anthea Stewart, who had played for South Africa 25 times before retiring in 1974, both coached the squad and played herself. Liz Chase, the only other team member with international experience (having also represented South Africa) was made vice-captain. At 35 years old, Stewart was the team's oldest player, while Arlene Boxall, the 18-year-old reserve goalkeeper, was the youngest. The squad included twin sisters in Sandy Chick and Sonia Robertson.[5]
Entirely amateur, the team mostly comprised players with professions unrelated to sport—Grant, for example, was a bookkeeper, while Boxall was an operations clerk in the Air Force of Zimbabwe.[5] Several had sporting relatives, most prominently Grant, whose brother was the international cricketer Duncan Fletcher.[3] Audrey Palmer, a seasoned hockey official and referee who had played for Rhodesia from 1953 to 1961, travelled with the team as a medic, trainer and general supervisor.[6][5] The squad left on 7 July, travelling first to the Zambian capital Lusaka and then to Luanda in Angola,[7] from where they flew to Moscow on an aircraft usually used for freighting meat. "The stench was terrible", Grant later said. "There were no seats, so we all sat on the floor, strapped in and set off into the unknown. We didn't even have the right shoes to play on the artificial hockey surface."[3]
Name (role) | Position | Date of birth (age) | Profession | Club |
---|---|---|---|---|
Arlene Boxall | Goalkeeper | 9 October 1961 (age 18) | Operations clerk in Air Force of Zimbabwe | Police |
Liz Chase (vice-captain) | Forward | 26 April 1950 (age 30) | Physical education teacher | Old Hararians |
Sandra Chick | Forward | 2 June 1947 (age 33) | Bank official | Salisbury Sports |
Gillian Cowley | Various | 8 July 1955 (age 25) | Bookkeeper | Salisbury Sports |
Patricia Davies | Various | 5 December 1956 (age 23) | Secretary | Old Hararians |
Sarah English | Goalkeeper | 28 November 1955 (age 24) | Audit clerk | Queens Sports Club |
Maureen George | Defender | 1 September 1955 (age 24) | Secretary | Salisbury Sports |
Ann Grant (captain) | Sweeper | 6 May 1955 (age 25) | Bookkeeper | Old Hararians |
Susan Huggett | Various | 29 June 1954 (age 26) | Bookkeeper | Old Hararians |
Patricia McKillop | Midfielder | 15 July 1956 (age 24) | Housewife | Bulawayo Athletic Club |
Brenda Phillips | Midfielder | 18 January 1958 (age 22) | Physical education teacher | Old Miltonians |
Christine Prinsloo | Midfielder | 3 May 1952 (age 28) | Insurance underwriter | Salisbury Postals |
Sonia Robertson | Defender | 2 June 1947 (age 33) | Sports coach | Salisbury Sports |
Anthea Stewart (player-coach) | Various | 20 November 1944 (age 35) | Not recorded | — |
Helen Volk | Various | 29 March 1954 (age 26) | Not recorded | Bulawayo Athletic Club |
Linda Watson | Various | 11 September 1955 (age 24) | Secretary-bookkeeper | Salisbury Sports |
Tournament
The event was organised as a
Zimbabwe played in the first women's Olympic hockey match, facing Poland on 25 July.[11] Pat McKillop scored the first goal to put Zimbabwe ahead before Pat Davies, Linda Watson and Chase each added one more to round off a 4–0 victory. On 27 July, Zimbabwe and Czechoslovakia drew 2–2; McKillop and Chase scored. The next day, the Zimbabweans beat the Soviets 2–0, McKillop scoring both goals. A 1–1 draw with India on 30 July put Zimbabwe in first place before the final round of matches on the 31st. Zimbabwe had to beat Austria to be sure of winning the gold.[5]
Stewart declared the team's first-choice white-and-blue outfit "lucky" on the basis that both Zimbabwe's victories had been won wearing it (as opposed to the two draws wearing green), and expressed joy that they would again be wearing white and blue in the deciding match.[11] According to Glen Byrom, covering the event for the Herald newspaper, the Zimbabweans appeared nervous during the opening stages of the game, and were fortunate not to go behind after 15 minutes, when Austria missed a clear chance.[11] Chick opened the scoring after 28 minutes, receiving the ball from a corner before cleanly stroking it into the net. Austria's Brigitte Kindler equalised two minutes later from a penalty stroke, flicking the ball beyond Zimbabwean goalkeeper Sarah English into the top-left corner of the goal. With the score 1–1 at half time, Brenda Phillips replaced Christine Prinsloo at right-half.[11]
Urged on by a small but loud group of fellow Zimbabwean Olympians, the Zimbabweans improved after the break and, according to Byrom, "ke[pt] the Austrian goal under siege" throughout the second half.
A few hours later, the Zimbabwean players returned to the field wearing their blue skirts and blue Zimbabwe Olympic blazers for the medals ceremony. After the third-placed Soviets and second-placed Czechoslovakians had received their medals, Grant led the team up to the podium to receive the first ever Olympic gold medal for women's hockey. It was their country's first Olympic medal of any colour. All 16 players received medals; they then led the Czechoslovakian and Soviet teams on a walking lap of honour around the field.[11]
Zimbabwe finished the tournament undefeated, having scored the most goals and conceded the fewest of any team. The six goals from Pat McKillop, a housewife from Bulawayo, made her the competition's joint top scorer with the USSR's Natella Krasnikova. Chase, despite nursing a knee injury, played in all five matches and scored three goals. All of the Zimbabwean squad members played at least one match except for Boxall, who never came off the bench, but still received a gold medal.[11]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Zimbabwe | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 8 | |
Czechoslovakia | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 7 | |
Soviet Union | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 6 | |
4 | India | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
5 | Austria | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 4 |
6 | Poland | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
Reactions and legacy
The victorious hockey players were immediately dubbed the "Golden Girls" by Zimbabwean reporters.
The Zimbabwean hockey team's victory at the 1980 Olympics was widely considered a great upset. Sports historians have called it a "fairytale"[3] and an "irresistible fairy story".[1] While the Zimbabweans were overjoyed by their unlikely status as the first ever Olympic gold medallists in women's hockey, some, including Robert Sullivan of Sports Illustrated, felt that the Zimbabwean victory epitomised how the Western boycott had lowered competitive standards and, in their opinion, "ruined" the 1980 Olympics.[8] While acknowledging this to an extent, Cathy Harris asserted in her 2008 retrospective on the team, published in The Sunday Times, that the victory still deserved to be recognised as a great achievement. "They freely acknowledge that they won the gold medal without competing against the best in the world", she concludes, "but, like many athletes in Moscow in 1980, they seized their chance."[3]
Notes and references
Footnote
References
- ^ a b Tomlinson 2010, p. 239.
- ^ Mallon & Heijmans 2011, p. 156.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harris & 2008 a.
- ^ Little 2005.
- ^ a b c d e f g Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.
- ^ "Zimbabwe's first Olympic gold and the forgotten hockey fairytale of 1980". www.insidethegames.biz. 26 July 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
- ^ Caute 1983, p. 438.
- ^ a b Sullivan 1984.
- ^ a b c d Harris & 2008 b.
- ^ Harris & 2008 a; Harris & 2008 b.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Byrom, McDermott & Streak 1980, pp. 249–253.
- ^ Chirumanzu 2012; Daily News 2012.
- ^ Sandu & Muchinjo 2004.
- ^ Mathers 2010.
Journal and newspaper articles
- Chirumanzu, Grace (21 July 2012). "Trish Davies' Glittering History". The Herald. Harare. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- Harris, Cathy (11 May 2008). "Caught in Time: Zimbabwe win hockey gold, 1980 Moscow Olympics". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- Harris, Cathy (15 May 2008). "Zimbabwe's fairytale Gold Medal in Moscow". Lausanne: International Hockey Federation. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- Little, Charles (2005). "Preventing 'A Wonderful Breakthrough For Rhodesia': The British Government and the Exclusion of Rhodesia from the 1968 Mexico Olympics" (PDF). Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies. XIV: 47–68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- Sandu, Ndamu; Muchinjo, Enock (30 July 2004). "Coventry sparkles in forgettable year". The Standard. Harare. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- Sullivan, Robert (21 May 1984). "A Decline in the Gold Standard". Sports Illustrated. New York. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- "She powered Zim to Olympics glory". Daily News. Harare. 10 December 2012. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
Bibliography
- Byrom, Glen; McDermott, Dave; Streak, Brian (1980). Rhodesian Sports Profiles, 1907–1979: with a supplementary feature on the Zimbabwe women's hockey team to the Moscow Olympics, 1980. Bulawayo: Books of Zimbabwe. ISBN 978-0-86920-217-3.
- ISBN 978-0-8101-0658-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-7522-7.
- Mathers, Kathryn (2012). "Coventry, Kirsty". In ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
- Tomlinson, Alan (2010). Oxford Dictionary of Sports Studies (Fourth ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921381-8.
- Moscow Olympics 1980 – Zimbabwe Women's Hockey Gold Medallists (commemorative booklet). Salisbury: Zimbabwe Olympic Committee. 1980.