India’s women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal is extremely happy to see the support extended to her team during the recently concluded match. Tokyo Olympics where he finished a historic fourth. India lost to Great Britain in the bronze medal fight but fourth place in their history at the Games is the best ever.
“In my career, I have never seen anyone wake up at 7 in the morning to watch a women’s hockey match. This is a big change. People started watching. During an exclusive conversation, Rani told CNN-News 18 that the love, respect and honor that we have received on returning, it seems that we have won a medal.
India defeated Australia 1–0 to reach the historic first semi-final, their third appearance at the Olympics. He then began the event with a hat-trick of losses before seeing him make it to the last-eight from his pool.
Asked what she told her teammates before the semi-final against Argentina, Rani said, “(I told them) it is already a great achievement that we are playing in the semi-finals of the Olympics. We have to lose. nothing to win but everything to win Gave my best. But that was not our day.”
There was a major improvement in performance compared to the Rio Olympics, where the team did not win a single game during their forgettable campaign.
Rani says the support of the government and sports authorities has been the main reason for her change. “Definitely there has been a change. It seemed that the money and (good) infrastructure is only in cricket and not for other sports. But as far as this Olympic journey is concerned, the government has given us all our support.” Even at the SAI centers, we were always asked about our needs so that our focus was only on playing.
However, Rani says that if India dreams of becoming a sports powerhouse, the government alone cannot be responsible and the general public will also have to support the players.
“If we have to make ourselves a sporting nation, the government alone cannot be responsible. We all have to contribute. We need everyone’s support. Others get inspired when they see players happy and celebrating. When we were kids, we used to see pictures of athletes in the newspapers and wondered if it would be us someday,” Rani said.
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