Olympic medals & stats ahead of Paris 2024

Context matters...

Statistics are a very peculiar thing. I love them because they tell the truth, instead of an opinion. I hate them because, without context, they can be used to prove all sorts of nonsense…

With the countdown to Paris 2024 ongoing the FIH published an article on some stats from hockey at the Olympics.

Next Tuesday we’ll publish our weekly newsletter “Last week in international hockey” with many of the selections announced for Paris 2024!

So far the individuals having played hockey in 5 consecutive Olympic Games are Ric Charlesworth 🇦🇺, Pol Amat 🇪🇸, Teun de Nooijer 🇳🇱 and another one from Spain with David Alegre 🇪🇸. These 4 legends will be joined following Paris by two Belgians 🇧🇪 with Felix Denayer and John John Dohmen about to start their 5th Games.

Let’s look at 24 editions of the Games for the men…

Credits FIH

India is leading the ranking of medals at the Olympics. What the stats don’t tell you their last gold medal dates from 1964. After many decades of struggling to adjust to modern hockey… on synthetic fields and with more teams making the effort to be topfit, they enjoyed the return to the podium with a bronze medal in Tokyo. And while, with the exception of Indians themselves, few would consider them a favourite for gold… they are for sure among the medal contenders once more for Paris.