Words and photographs from John Coxon.
After the excitement of the London Olympics , the development of World League Hockey will bring international women’s hockey of the highest standard back to these shores the once this year and within relatively easy reach of most of us in the UK as we look forward to the Investec World League women’s semis taking place next month in London. Although our highly successful women , Olympic Bronze medallists and the Dutch Gold medallists will be competing for World Cup qualification away at the other semis in Rotterdam, the silver medallists and current world champions Argentina will be competing in London. That brings with it the prospect of watching the magic of probably the most celebrated ever female hockey athlete in the world, Luciana Aymar ,as speculation grows that she is close to retiring. But is she ready to finally hang up her famous pink botines ?
Luciana , aka “la maga” , (the magician) “lucha” ( fighter) "El Diego" and "La Maradona del hockey". holds the record for any female hockey player in terms of accolades , winning world FIH Player of the Year an unprecedented seven times. Back In 2010, as a mark of her incredible celebrity at home, Luciana beat even footballing legend Lionel Messi and was presented with the prestigious "Olimpia de Oro “, awarded annually to the nation’s best athlete by the Sports Journalists' Circle of Argentina, ( and this is a macho driven society where football is a national obsession and source of pride) That year was Argentina’s bi-centennial and Luciana was in there with such great Argentine sporting names as Diego Maradona, the tennis player Guillermo Vilas, the motorist Juan Manuel Fangio, the boxer Carlos Monzon, the rugby player Hugo Porta and Manu Ginobili from international basketball.
In a frank interview with Argentine sports journalist Andrés Eliceche , May 19th , (for the Buenos Aires based newspaper, magazine and website Perfil) Luciana fielded questions about events in the very recent past that have affected the national game, and spoke frankly about psychological support she has received and the prospects of her retirement. The good news is, that while her retirement is of course inevitable and very possibly not that far off , she has announced she is not ready to retire just yet. In previous down time, this player , easily the most celebrated female athlete in the history of Argentine sport, has successfully tried her hand at modelling, TV work and other public celebrity pursuits and will no doubt have a bright future whichever area she decides to explore at the end of her glittering playing career. In readiness for when the time comes to give up the game , she tells us she is receiving on going counselling.
We were led to wonder if Luciana would even play in the 2012 Olympics after a long and successful career and great personal sacrifice representing her country and especially when she had a long, officially sanctioned layoff away from training with the team after Las Leonas became World Champions. By Christmas 2011 it was more than clear that she wasn’t ready to leave and was receiving special individual training before rejoining the Las Leonas team at Centro Nacional de Alto Rendimiento Deportivo ( CENARD), the national centre for sporting excellence in Buenos Aeres where they train together as a squad. She clearly wanted to carry on and be a part of the Olympics and we were led to expect that immediately after that she would retire. The Olympic gold was the only medal not in the cabinet of this extraordinary player or the team and even though Luciana did play and inspire the girls, of course the Dutch took gold from them in London. She was clearly still up to carry on even after London 2012 and, we hear she was, and remains, an admirer of Marcerlo Garraffo, Argentina’s best ever male player without doubt and one of the country’s most experienced and widely respected coaches , who took over as national coach following the departure of Carlo Retegui. Under Garraffo Luciana happily played and trained with the latest“ selection” within a new framework of technical staff.
But , more recently, very soon after the election of new committee blood at the heart of the game, the Confederación Argentina De Hockey (CAH) we saw the arrival of a new President, apparently from the world of politics not sport or hockey, Aníbal Fernández. Within a week of that unanimous appointment we witnessed the surprise and controversial immediate departure of both the men’s and women’s national coaches. The timing of such a major change raised many eyebrows abroad as the women were in mid preparation for World Cup qualification at the London World League Semis next month. With the loss of a much respected new coach (whom the team seemed very comfortable with) it was with great interest we waited to see if this would herald the swan song of Luciana or whether she would continue with this sudden and unexpected change on the technical staff and be happy to work under yet another coach. Luciana opted to stick with it and focus on training and playing and leave all the speculation to others. As well as the World League semi finals, the new coach Emanuel Roggero has his eye, in the main, on later this year for the Las Leonas team, with Luciana carrying the Captain’s arm band for the Copa America in Mendoza, where winning offers direct qualification to the World Cup 2014 . We can reasonably expect Luciana to remain with the team and perhaps bow out , at the earliest after that World Cup in Holland .
It is clear that Luciana simply was not happy with the way these changes were managed but apparently happy to accept them . She appears to have no problem working with the new coach and accepting the authority and decisions of the new CAH President. She also admits that she did not contact Fernández before the CAH elections because she thought that would be inappropriate. “ We have to understand that for a while hockey is halfway between professionalism and amateurism” Luciana said, “ and will end up closer to being professional.” She continued “ Now we have to accommodate the new head, but acknowledge and show we can adapt to change.”
Tellingly, but as ever diplomatic, she cautiously added “ The problem is that sometimes from outside they may want to put the players in a political war, and we are not here for that and nor do we want to be a part of that” . “ This should serve for the next time there are elections and ensure that this does not happen after a recent coaching change, for example.” Elsewhere, talking to a journalist with Clarin earlier in the month Luciana showed great professionalism (and responsibility as captain) and as one of the most respected players in the game when she said “As players we have to respect the decision of Aníbal, adapt to the coaching staff and come and train for our next target is the World League semi finals in June. That's the most important thing. "
COPING WITH CELEBRITY ( on and off the pitch)
Looking back we learn, during the interview, that the transition as a player from relative anonymity in the team to all the world and media attention and the dubbing of her being called the World’s best player came at a personal cost and she found that difficult. She has won so many awards during here career as a player but maintains that the greatest prize of all was being chosen as her nation’s flag bearer for the 2012 Olympics. We remember that Luciana was a shy and modest woman who was uncomfortable under the spot light and she needed frequent professional outside counselling to help her over this. She remains a relatively private and humble person but clearly now she is much better equipped emotionally to deal with so much media attention and the pressure of being worthy of the accolade of best ever player . That pressure of course is unrelenting and will be with her until she finally does retire from playing. “I wanted to take that place, but it was hard to take and hold. I wanted to be the best, be the captain, be open to other players. They were a lot of things. In my case, not just being talented, but to focus on everything else and therapy helped.”
Luicana spoke openly of her sessions with “Nelly” with whom she has recently been discussing retirement “With Nelly, my psychologist, I always talk about how to address it. Therapy is essential for the athlete, with the one fight with yourself, then you are good to deal with it with someone to help from another context other than the sport.”
So Andrés asks Luciana if indeed she is ready for retirement with such help? Luciana is candid in admitting “No! (Laughs). As much as I talk in therapy, for retirement I'll never be ready. I will continue with the clinics, but it will not be the same as playing. That adrenaline rush won’t be coming back when I go. I know I'll be anxious, I will have to endure mourning. (The game )It's a huge part of me and my life.” Andrés prods again asking Luciana if this is the time to become a mother on retirement. He asks ,“Maybe it's time to be a mother, which always you mention.” “Well” admits Luciana,” I said it when I was twenty I wanted to have a family by twenty five and as things went that changed to thirty! In the end, the children of my friends will take care of mine! Although it sounds cliché, having a child is my dream, of course.”
MORE ON GOVERNANCE AND WHAT LUCIANA SEES AS THE PRIORITY.
The interview turned back to the apparent storm with the new president imposing coaching changes. On this Luciana stated that she was able to speak “as equals” with Fernandez and talks were “open , they listened to each other but disagreed .” “He reminded us that he had always talked about the changes. I told him that we would have liked have been warned in advance . The discomfort was in the way it was done not what was done. Later, I felt , when elected as CAH president, he was entitled to do what he wants. I do not interfere in their decision, - it was the form and the timing that were difficult. As far as I am concerned it's over and nothing more to say.”
So when asked did this side of things ever tempt her to leave the team she was emphatic that this was “a special time to be gone through .”
LOOKING BACK AT HER PLAYING CAREER
“There are so many things to look back on”, Luciana enthused, “ –when I debuted in 1996, the nickname Leonas had not even occurred to anyone. Back then I was 18, was just a girl. It was on a tour of England before the Atlanta Games, which I was cited at the end. I lived through the whole evolution of the team and the game. No one really recognised the sport until the time came for sponsors, contracts, representatives, then came the funding. I started when I did not receive a penny, and nowadays the girls that start in the team have a very good scholarship. The players have to be totally committed to the sport and inevitably it is going to become more and more professional. It costs you too in terms of demands on you – for example , as a requirement now we train every day on double shifts. “Putting in more effort than footballers? “ Andres asks finally. “Ah - it's different, they have more games out there and we have plenty of work together and I don’t want to get into more problems.”
Based on the original report in Spanish (“No estoy preparada para el retiro”) from May 19th by Andrés Eliceche here perfil.com
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For further details of both women’s semi finals in the World Hockey League and directions/ticket information can be found on these two Blog Entries :-
