The Indian hockey team performed amazingly in the Paris Olympics 2024. The Indian team won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics. India had defeated Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal match. The Indian hockey team has won bronze for the second consecutive Olympic Games. Earlier, he also achieved this feat in Tokyo Olympics (2020).
Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh played an important role in the victory of the Indian team. Experienced goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, who was playing his last tournament, kept protecting the Indian goal like a rock throughout the tournament, despite his dream of changing the color of the medal being shattered, he said that now he has his last chance and the medal can still be won. . And he fulfilled his promise.
Sreejesh started hockey for this reason!
PR Sreejesh’s hockey journey has been very interesting. Sreejesh started playing hockey so that he could get grace marks in the board exam. Sreejesh had recently revealed this in an interview given to former Indian cricket team wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik. The video related to this is going viral.
Sreejesh says, ‘If you play for Kerala at Under-14 or Under-17 level, you get grace marks in the board exam. Hockey was not easy because in this game you had to play in a bent position. It was difficult for me. Apart from this you have to run. I was a little overweight and I didn’t like running at all. I saw goalkeepers standing in a corner wearing full kit and kicking the ball. I thought it was so funny because they weren’t doing anything. They are not running. They are just wearing pads and kicking the ball. So, I felt this was the right position for me because you don’t need to run.
Sreejesh’s international career was like this
PR Sreejesh had already announced that Paris Olympics was going to be his last tournament. This was the fourth Olympics for Sreejesh, who played 336 matches for India. 36-year-old Sreejesh, who has played in the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Cup, also played an important role in India winning the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 with his excellent goalkeeping. Now his magic worked in front of the goal post in Paris also.
PR Sreejesh made his debut for the Indian team in 2010. He was a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games and the bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games. He has been a member of the joint-winning team of the Asian Champions Trophy in 2018, the gold medal-winning team of the 2019 FIH Men’s Series Final in Bhubaneswar and the silver medal-winning team of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
PR Sreejesh and Manu Bhakar were the flag bearers of the Indian contingent for the ‘Parade of Nations’ in the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Sreejesh returned to India on 13 August (Tuesday). Apart from Sreejesh, among the hockey players, Amit Rohidas, Sumit, Raj Kumar Pal, Abhishek, Sukhjit Singh, Sanjay were also spotted at the airport. The players were given a warm welcome at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. People were also seen celebrating vigorously to the beat of drums. Earlier on August 11, players of Indian hockey team belonging to Punjab had returned to Amritsar.