Everything you need to know to get you ready for the FIH Olympic Qualifier
The time has arrived. The Canadian Wolf Pack is about open its tournament against Great Britain and begin the challenge of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Eight top-ranked teams vying for just three spots.
Canada earned its place in the tournament by finishing in the top four at the Pan American Championships in Santiago in November 2023, setting the stage for an intense showdown in Spain. Placed in a pool alongside Great Britain, Spain, and Malaysia, the Canadian team faces a great test on their journey to Olympic qualification.
How to Follow
FIH Watch Hockey is the Canadian broadcaster of the Olympic Qualifiers. Go to the app or to the browser site to get the pay per view package for the men’s and women’s tournaments.
Field Hockey Canada will be tweeting match scores and posting all results/images and videos on social media.
Match scores and recaps will be posted daily on our home page and our event pages.
Visit the tournament page for further updates on the event including pool standings, event results, links to videos and box scores.
TOURNAMENT MILESTONES
Waterloo’s Jordyn Faiczak will play in her 50th cap during the FIH Olympic Qualifier and Mississauga’s Dani Husar will get her first senior international cap after a decorated career on the Junior National Team.
Karli Johansen and Natalie Sourisseau will start their creep towards 200 caps as they will finish the tournament with 174 and 179 respectively. Only four Canadian women have reached the 200 cap threshold. Sara McManus, active at 211 caps, second all-time to Kate Wright will only be 12 matches short of the Canadian record holder at the end of the tournament.
The average cap count on this senior women’s team is 55 and the average age is 25, meaning this is a young team but comes with recent big-game experience. This team is retuning almost in-full the Pan American Games roster and brings back a leadership core that played in the 2022 World Cup and Commonwealth Games.
STORY NUGGETS
Familiar foe: The opening match of the tournament will feature Canada facing off against Great Britain. This will be the first time that Canadian coaches Danny Kerry and Kate Richardson Walsh face off against their former squad.
Retribution time: For Elise Wong, Kat Leahy, Sara McManus, Karli Johansen, Natalie Sourisseau and Rowan Harris, this tournament has an extra layer of retribution to it, as they were all there in 2019 in Dublin when Canada came up one goal short against Ireland in the last Olympic qualifying event.
Youth Movement: Over half the team (11 players) is under the age of 25, many of them coming off strong junior and college/university careers and already well into their international careers. If they keep on their trajectory, the team could have an average cap-count of double and an average age of around 28-30 as the team heads into the next Olympic quad, with loads of experience from this cycle.
JOIN OUR JOURNEY
Field Hockey Canada encourages local, provincial and national sponsors to get involved with our ‘Join our Journey’ sponsorship campaign. The initiative is inclusive of the entire Canadian field hockey community and gives organizations and companies the opportunity to join Field Hockey Canada on the journey to international success at all levels.
With your support as part of our team, we can achieve even more and in doing so amplify your voice and business too through our local, national and international communities.
JOIN OUR JOURNEY AND GET INVOLVED AS A SPONSOR
TEAM CANADA FAN-WEAR
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