The Indian's women's hockey team created history earlier today when they defeated Australia 1-0 to enter their maiden semifinal of the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Rani Rampal-led side which is ranked number 9 in the world knocked out the favourites and world number 2 to make their way into an historic Olympic semifinal.
It has been a major turnaround for Indian Hockey as the last time the Indian women's hockey team competed in the Olympics, it was a disaster with zero wins in the entire 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The standard of Indian women's hockey has since gone up manifolds.
While players surely deserve all the credits for this rise of Indian women in the world of hockey, there is one man who has gone unnoticed – the coach of the Indian women's hockey team Sjoerd Marijne.
A Dutch national, Sjoerd Marijne first took over as the coach of the Indian women's team a year after the Rio de Janeiro debacle in the year 2017. Sjoerd has for the most part been a coach with the national women's team of the country, playing a vital role in developing the sport in the country.
Is it time to honour Sjoerd Marijne with the prestigious Dronacharya award for his contribution to Indian hockey? Netizens certainly think so.
Here are the reactions.
