Men's Field Hockey? Who knew?

[NomadInBA]

But it's not the biggest sport in any of those countries.

At the olympics there about 8 ice hockey countries that have an real chance of winning the Olympics. Don't think this is the same for men's field hockey

Out of the whole 12 countries that compete in the winter Olympics



Personally I think they are both dull sports to watch.

 

[El chabon]

How many truly global teamsports are there then?

Soccer is first and then about a milion miles later you got sports like Cricket, Baseball, icehockey, volleybal, Basketbal and field hockey who are big in some regions in the world.

If you compare ice hockey to those sports they do a great job in about 8 to 12 countries, most other sports don't even reach those levels.

 

[El chabon]

Olympic gold is in Stockholm,Moskow, Helsinki, Prague, Bratislava, some states in the USA and the whole of Canada a huge party. There wont be a big party in any of the 8 quarter finalist countries if they win men's field hockey gold. Not even in Holland where all hoofdklasse teams would get a medal if they were allowed to compete in the olympics

 

[Crema Americana]

I suppose field hockey is one of those sports that is accessible to everyone regardless of climate or high tech facilities. Handball, too. There's a lot of sports that I forget exist until the Olympics.

Are there any sports that are men only? The only ones I can think of that are women only is rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. Even boxing has women competing.

 

[bomber]

But it's not the biggest sport in any of those countries.

So? You're still wrong if you think ice hockey is played by more people or in more countries than grass hockey in the world.

Why do you need to denigrate a sport - or anything for that matter - simply because you don't like it?

 

[ElQueso]

So? You're still wrong if you think ice hockey is played by more people or in more countries than grass hockey in the world.

Why do you need to denigrate a sport - or anything for that matter - simply because you don't like it?

Not to denigrate either sport (although I played ice hockey myself for nearly two decades, so I am a bit biased), but I think the surprise comes because as a comparison ice hockey has major league status at least in North America and Europe, whereas I don't believe field hockey does anywhere. At least I've never heard of a professional field hockey league.

And I'm with NomadInBA: I loved playing hockey, it was a large part of my life growing up and even into college, but I thought it was MOST boring to watch But having played soccer, US football, baseball and basketball in organized sports, as far as at least those go - ice hockey's the sport (in my opinion) that kicks the best ass to play!

 

[bomber]

No, as with the majority of sports that exist, it's not played professionally by many.
Pro sports makes up a tiny percentage of the actual sports that exist globally.

(I don't play field hockey by the way, it just seems silly for the OP to post his ignorance of particular a sport as a "surprise").

 

[El chabon]

So? You're still wrong if you think ice hockey is played by more people or in more countries than grass hockey in the world.

Why do you need to denigrate a sport - or anything for that matter - simply because you don't like it?

I don't know where you get the mistaken idea that I like to denigrate the sport, I played it myself a bit and played like 10 years of ice hockey.

I personally like hockey and fully expect my country is going to win the woman's event and hoping the men also win, but it's kinda like windsurfing or sailing, you still win gold but nobody really cares.

Ice hockey on the other hand is a huge event in the hockey countries, win the gold and your Olympics are succesfull, that's the difference between the impact of both the sports on the olympics

 

[bomber]

And a non-event in non ice hockey countries, which is the majority of the planet.

 

[citygirl]

I will completely admit that it was a surprise to me as well - but that's my US upbringing showing. I had no idea how popular it was or that it was played by men. Learn something new every day.

I also got chastised for calling it "field hockey" and was corrected by the SO that it's just hockey. What I grew up calling hockey is called "ice hockey". Duly noted!