Chile, Hong Kong, Malawi, New Zealand and Poland have been selected as this year’s WorldHockey Youth Challenge prize-winners. They included the central theme “Live the Dream, celebrating 100 years of Olympic Hockey” in an exceptional way in their activities.

Chile organized recreational “Live the Dream” activities for the U12 group and a more serious indoor training and 4 vs 4 tournament for the U16 and U21 squads; these were all in the frame work of 100 years of Olympic Hockey.

Malawi implemented many activities from the FIH Live the Dream activities booklet and added “Dream Talk”: discussions on individual dreams and dreams for hockey. According to Malawi’s Development Officer, the Olympic Dream is alive in every child, irrespective of where he/ she live.

Hong Kong turned its King’s Park Hockey Ground into a Live the Dream Park, with many fun activities around the theme. Very special was the visit of former Hong Kong men’s team captain Faooq Saeed, who joined the event with the Beijing Olympic torch, having been one of the Torch relay runners. The young participants were very happy to have the chance to hold the torch and share the Olympic spirit

New Zealand provided a Live the Dream programme for no less than 26.000 young players, exceptional participation! Most of the state associations were actively involved, offering many Live the Dream competitions, varying from juggling to Olympic banner and photo competitions.

Poland organized a very special event in the Paluki region. 25 teams from 4 countries in the U13 age group came together with the aim to popularize the Olympic spirit and to increase the interest in hockey as an Olympic Sport. Under the theme “From Athens to Beijing – let’s live it again” the young players enjoyed  opening and closing ceremonies copying the full Olympic protocol, Olympic history quizzes,  meeting and talking with Olympic players and also they played lots of hockey! A report can be found on YouTube which is played on the home page of the WorldHockey website.

The prize winners have been selected by a jury, consisting of Anne Ellis (DCC Chair), Renita Garard (Chair Athletes Committee), Tina Brullo (co-ordinator Youth Panel), Stephan Haumann (member Working Group Youth) and Gabrielle van Doorn (FIH Development Manager). The jury selected one prize winner per continent. The prize winning countries will receive a visit from a player of the Olympic Gold winning Women’s team.

Anne Ellis, DCC Chair, states: it is encouraging to see that the Olympic Dream is alive in so many countries. Congratulations to the Youth Development teams of Malawi, Chile, Hong Kong, Poland and New Zealand, and also to the other 30 NAs who organized a Youth Challenge event for their young players. It is not only a great pleasure to read about the joy of the participants, but also about the media attention this event receives. Most participating NAs manage to get coverage of this event in the local, regional or national media, something which is important for all the countries that don’t appear in World cups and Olympic Games. 

A special word of appreciation goes to Shell Netherlands for sponsoring the visits of the Olympic Gold Medal players.

NA reports and pictures of the WorldHockey Youth Challenge can be found on the WorldHockey website by clicking here.