Why the women's hockey gold could be India's most significant gold of these Games

THE medals have been handed out and the songs have been sung. Pretty soon, the last tranche of athletes will be making their way back to India from Nagoya. In all, India won 85 medals (21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze). While all 21 gold medals look the same, shine the same and weigh the same, they don't feel the same. For example, a gold in men's cricket is fine but it doesn't have the same gravitas to it.

Out of the 21 gold medals India won, 11 came in team events (men, women or mixed). And out of that 11, one was just that bit more special than the others: first among equals. The gold won by the women's hockey team on Friday. In simple looking forward terms, the top step of the podium gives them immediate access to two years of planning, experimentation as they have punched their ticket to the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

But to purely look at their gold through that prism is to miss the forest for the trees.

Even as late as the end of 2025, this was a broken team, broken almost beyond repair. It was fractured, disunity was thriving and the coach of the side had to be let go because of various allegations including outdated coaching methodologies. In 2024, another coach, in a teary-eyed confession to a few journalists, had alleged discrimination on account of her gender. She placed the blame on the federation before stepping down a few days later.

That it came just three years after the high of Tokyo where they had finished fourth at the Olympics was alarming to say the least. In 2021, the women's hockey team had become a synonym for a brave new world. Sure, they didn't win a medal but they didn't need to win a medal to show what they had done. Across 2024 and 2025, that feelgood factor had melted like ice-cream in an Indian summer.

It's why Siddharth Pandey, an FIH level 3 certified coach and part of the commentary team during the Asian Games, feels that this 'gold is the most significant team gold India won at the Asian Games'. "I think they should just enjoy what they have done," he tells this daily. "It has come after 44 years, I have no doubt that it's that significant," Pandey, team director of Hyderabad Toofans, a side in the Hockey India League, adds.

Pandey has a unique vantage point in that he's a commentator-cum-administrator-cum-coach. When he says things, he's able to first see them through various eyes. When asked what has changed, he puts down fitness as a main reason. "During the time of the previous coaches," he says, "You would see players with taped hamstrings and elbows. Injuries were plaguing the team. Right now, what we have seen is, one squad plays at the World Cup. No change in that squad delivering at the Asian Games two weeks later. They have peaked twice in three months."

Other reasons include Taeke Taekema, the Dutch legend who has been imparting his penalty corner knowledge to the Indian side. "I think the one other significant acquisition that the Indian women's team made was to get Taekema on for penalty corners. So, he has great expertise. He himself has been a massive legend in that one unique skill that defines hockey in a very big way. But what was significant about his acquisition was, from 2022 to 2024, he worked with the Chinese team. So, the knowledge and the know-how, the inside know-how and the intelligence that he got with him on how China attacks and defends penalty corners, I think that would have been invaluable, priceless, almost. And you can also see, India are a big threat with penalty corners now.

Wayne's world: Fitter and better

"There are other small elements such as the stories of groupism that were coming out from within the team, we don't hear them anymore. Which means, it's a very unified group, right? And that credit has to go to (coach) Sjoerd Marijne. People have been able to put things aside and then they are like, 'okay, we really need to work towards these things and whatever differences we may have had, let's bury them'."

There is now a renewed sense of purpose: one for all, all for one. Also, because there has been a marked jump in fitness, their running and staying power is greater. From a technical perspective, this has given the side a big point of difference when they are defending in a low block. "So, from a tactical perspective, more than how they are pressing, where they are pressing, I think the way they defend in a low block is very very impressive. The biggest example was the final where they were able to get over the line with only a goal in the bag (they beat China 1-0). They did not concede. I think tactically that has been a very very significant improvement.

"We saw glimpses of that at the World Cup against the best in the world where the likes of Australia, England, China, even the Netherlands that won 2-0 against us, were genuinely struggling to break us down. That is because the shape when we defend deep in our own half I think is quite watertight. I think that is a big difference that we are seeing from under previous coaches to now."

How far can this side go? Nobody is equipped enough to answer that question with a certain degree of surety but one thing is sure: they will give it a good go. And at the elite level, that's all you can ask for.