ABOUT THE SPORT: Applies the basic rules of ice hockey only played on a football-sized field. International games are played on artificial turf. Backhand shots or passes are disallowed as players must hit a hard plastic ball only with the flat (front) side of a wooden or composite stick. Each team fields 11 players with the goal being to outscore an opponent. Nets are 12 by 7 feet. One of the world's oldest team sports, the game's origins date more than 4,000 years ago in Egypt.
FAVORITES: The United States did not qualify in the men's or women's divisions, though the U.S. women came within one victory of a trip to Athens. The top men's teams are world champion Germany, India, which once dominated the sport and has eight golds, Great Britian, France and Pakistan. Japan, Spain, New Zealand and Germany rank among the women's best.
MISSED OUT: Unlike the U.S. men, who placed eighth and out of the running in the Olympic qualifier at Madrid in March, the U.S. women had a shot at controlling their destiny. But they narrowly missed out on claiming the fifth and final Olympic berth in their qualifier at New Zealand. The U.S. women lost 4-0 to South Korea to finish sixth. The team will have a representative at the Olympics, though. Coach Nick Conway is part of NBC's broadcast team for the men's and women's competitions.
FOREIGNER NOT WANTED: The Indian Hockey Federation's ill-timed decision to fire men's national coach Rajinder Singh three weeks before the Athens Games drew the ire of that country's former Olympians. Nonetheless, national selector Aslam Sher Khan, who played for India's 1974 World Cup championship team and has long sought a foreign coach, defended bringing in German coach Gerhard Rach. India last won gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
THE PEOPLE'S VOICE: India's most-capped player and four-time Olympian, 35-year-old striker Dhanraj Pillay, was not added to the national team until that nation's fans clamored for his inclusion.
DID YOU KNOW?: Women's field hockey was added to the Moscow Olympics, but the United States boycotted and debuted in 1984 at Los Angeles. The men first played in the 1908 London Olympics. The Netherlands men and Australia women each have won gold in the past two Olympics. The United States has two bronzes. The men's came in 1932 and the women's in 1984.
