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It’s not quite 58 years of hurt, but Team GB’s men’s hockey team have got the feeling that what was then could be again.
Hockey was front page, back page, and top of the hour 36 years ago in 1988 when Sean Kerly, Imran Sherwani, and keeper Ian Taylor made themselves household names at the Seoul Olympics.
They even inspired one of Barry Davies’ most famous commentaries: “Where, oh where, were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?” said the man from Auntie, losing all sense of objectivity as Sherwani scored to seal a 3-1 triumph and Olympic gold in style.
Hockey came home after Seoul but Great Britain’s men have had just one sniff of a medal since, losing to Australia in the bronze medal match at London 2012. By contrast, the women’s team have made the podium at the last three Games – two bronzes sandwiching their famous penalty shootout gold in Rio.
But whisper it quietly, there is confidence as the men prepare to start their Paris 2024 campaign against Spain at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir this weekend, the venue where Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams’ track and field exploits in 1924 inspired Chariots of Fire.
They are ranked second in the world, behind the Netherlands, who they narrowly lost to in the final of last year’s European Championships.
The 16-strong men’s squad features a mix of youth and experience, with seven men set to make their Olympic debuts in the French capital. Skipper David Ames is one of two three-time Olympians to earn selection and is seeking to follow the lead of Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood, members of the Seoul team and the last Northern Irish athletes to win Olympic gold in any sport.
Spend a few minutes in the company of the softly-spoken midfielder, and you’d never guess who his sporting inspiration was.
“I tend to come out of myself when I’m on a hockey pitch, but essentially, it’s just trying to be the same as I always have been,” explains Ames. “I think it would be foolish for me to try to change.
“Roy Keane is someone I listen to a lot. He has a completely different mindset to me, but he speaks very openly and very truthfully about everything. I’ve tried to do that myself—more than I perhaps should have.”
Ames credits the arrival of coach Paul Revington with instilling a new belief in the team – though don’t call it ‘Revsball’, his players think his animated touchline manner is more Jürgen Klopp.
Revington is a former world coach of the year, taking his native South Africa to the Olympics in 2004 before spells with Ireland, Great Britain, where he coached the women’s team, and Malaysia.
“He’s brought in a fast-paced style of hockey and instilled in us a desire to do whatever it takes to stand on podiums,” adds Ames. “That’s pretty much all we ever speak about.”
Revington’s squad talk a lot about the confidence he has instilled and his relentless focus on winning.
“Revs has done incredible things for a lot of guys’ belief,” said Phil Roper, who is making his second Olympic appearance in Paris.
“He wants us to play an exciting brand of hockey and that’s what we want to do – to play in a way that fans can get behind and people enjoy watching. Thankfully, I’m probably one of those players who has benefited because I like having the freedom to go and try things, to score great goals and make nice actions.”
Richard Dodds, who captained Great Britain to gold in Seoul, was drafted in by Revington to speak to the team before they flew out to France. Dodds, who became an orthopaedic surgeon, was the classic thinking captain, capable of going full Churchill in his inspirational team talks.
His vice-captain, Paul Barber, preferred to instil fear, unleashing a few strongly worded home truths before their semi-final against Australia.
“Everyone thinks you’re good, but I’m not so sure,” he famously told Kerly, who’d scored four goals in five games to earn comparisons with Gary Lineker. “It’s time you went out and proved it.”
Kerly duly netted a hat-trick in a 3-2 win over the gold medal favourites.
“We watched a video of 1988, and it got us all so excited,” said Jacob Draper. “It probably came a little early because we left the meeting thinking ‘can we play some more’?
“It was a video of the Seoul 1988 team when they won gold. It was their route to it, the semi-final against Australia, the final against Germany, and watching a team from Great Britain do what they did is incredibly special.
“Seeing how long it’s been since we’ve medalled and got a gold motivates you, and I definitely felt like I wanted to be one of the individuals to end a run of not achieving behind us and make sure we kickstart our own legacy.”
Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.
