PARIS : Medal contention was always the goal for Belgium’s women’s hockey team at the start of their long qualifying run for the Paris Games, a journey more than a decade in the making fueled by a reshaping of the national programme’s gender dynamics.
The programme and pay for the men’s and women’s teams were levelled out two years ago by the Belgian Hockey Federation (RBIHF), with the gap having started to close in 2015 with more money for youth development and regional teams.
Now the women have advanced to their first semi-final in their first Olympic playoff run after beating a strong Spain team 2-0 on Monday in a tight quarter-final that was goalless until the fourth quarter, while the men are out of contention.
“Twelve years ago when we played in London, I was a child. And I was very overwhelmed. I was just enjoying being there,” said Belgium forward Judith Vandermeiren.
“If you told me in London that I was going to play a semi-finals at the Olympics one day I would have laughed very hard. But it was the start for Belgian women’s hockey also financially. Everyone started believing.”
When the RBIHF rekindled Olympic aspirations and went looking for money in 2005 they only found enough cash for one team and the men got the lion’s share, fueling their runs to successive Olympics after not qualifying since 1976.
The women received some money but the programme investments were not truly equal in 2015, three years after their first Olympic tournament. It would be seven more years until the players’ pay was level across the board.
“The moment we qualified for Paris I was like we’re not just going to be there, we’re going to show the world how we can play hockey. And I think we’re doing that amazingly at this point,” said Vandermeiren.
“We have a very good balance of experience and of younger girls. There are four or five that already did the Olympics and that have more than 200 caps. So it’s a really good balance in the team.”
The women who scraped and fought to make it to the 2012 London Games changed the belief in the squad albeit without winning a medal. They shifted the RBIHF’s direction, showing that equal investment and pay was not only right but necessary.
“It’s not a golden generation but more that they put in the work and effort and then gifted players can make a championship out of it,” RBIHF representative Denis van Damme said.
