The Indian women's hockey team made history when they defeated the three-time Olympic gold medallists Australia 1-0 in the quarter-final and played in their first-ever Olympic semi-final against Argentina in the Tokyo Olympics.
Midfielder Salima Tete, who played an integral role in India's brilliant performance at the Olympics, expressed that even though the team couldn't finish on the podium, they have shown signs of a bright future.
"Our performance in Tokyo is slowly starting to sink in now. We were really dejected when we lost to Great Britain in the bronze medal match, but now we are seeing the positives from the tournament. We may not have won a medal, but we have certainly gained a lot of confidence from the way we played in Tokyo and it's definitely going to help us to grow as a team and produce much better results in the future," said the 19-year-old.
Tete added that she feels blessed to have received an opportunity to play in the Olympics at a very young age. "The Olympic Games is the biggest tournament for any sportsperson and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity of performing for my country at the biggest of stages. I have learned a lot by playing in high-pressure situations and I am certainly going to use my learnings in the upcoming competitions.
“One learns a lot when one is against the best and we are very happy with the way we gave a tough fight to each of our opponents in the knock-out stage of the Tokyo Games," said the midfielder.
When asked about the most important things that helped India perform exceedingly well at the Olympics, Tete said, "We always found a way to push the ball forward and attack our opponents in the Olympics. We created many goal-scoring opportunities and ensured that we utilized our penalty corners well. And also, we gave everything we had on the pitch and never gave up, no matter what the situation was. The never-give-in attitude helped us to stay in the moment and keep fighting against our opponents until the final whistle was blown."
