Tokyo 2020: Coach Sjoerd Marijne's journey from rank outsider to Hockey India insider

On September 8, 2017, Hockey India made an announcement that catapulted the game to the national headlines. A new coach would be taking charge of the Indian men's team in place of Roelant Oltmans.

The replacement? Sjoerd Marijne, coach of the Indian national women's team.

Few paid attention when a little-known Dutchman replaced Neil Hawgood as coach of the women's team earlier the same year and the questions doing the rounds when Oltmans' successor was announced revolved more around the identity rather than the capability of the man in question.

"Who is Sjoerd Marijne?" asked many within the hockey fraternity as they frantically searched Google to be in a position to put together a story about the new coach of the Indian men's team.

Marijne who had coached the Netherlands women's team briefly after Max Caldas was moved to the Netherlands men's side and before Alyson Annan took over began his Asian coaching stint in China. But it was the Indian women's team that had caught his attention even as they were walloped by the Dutch girls.

The Dutchman was quick to observe that the girls had immense talent but lacked the requisite level of strength, fitness, and stamina that a world-class team needed. Before he could settle in and begin his mission of giving the team a new structure, the Dutchman was shifted to the men's team, which after winning bronze in the 2017 Asia Cup came back empty-handed from the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

Hockey India did the unthinkable by swapping coaches of the men's and women's teams, with Harendra Singh taking charge of a Men's team ahead of the Asian Games and World Cup, while Sjoerd Marijne was unceremoniously sent back to coach the Women's side.

Many at the time wondered how a coach who was not considered good enough for the men's team could take charge of the women's team and called out a perceived gender bias.

Not many were privy to the fact that, unlike the men's team who did not fancy the Dutchman, the Indian women's team gelled amazingly well with Sjoerd Marijne.

Hockey India had inadvertently made a classic move - one that would catapult women's hockey in India to new heights in record time.

A silver at the Asian Champions Trophy that was bagged less than a month after Marijne took charge was followed by a place in the World Cup quarterfinal.

A group of 18 players who travelled to London for the World Cup were playing the Asian Games with barely a fortnight's break and still went on to win silver in Jakarta.

A memorable win against the USA booked the Indian girls a ticket to Tokyo but few could have imagined that a team of no-hopers that finished last in Rio 2016 would be within striking distance of a medal in Tokyo five years later.

When the Olympic draw was announced in November 2019, it became clear the girls would be in the tougher of the two groups and a quarterfinal place, though not impossible would require a massive effort.