Hockey at the 2000 Summer Olympics

The men had a field of 12 teams with the same format as they had used since 1976 – two round-robin groups of six teams followed by semi-finals. The women’s field was increased to 10 teams. They were separated into two five-team groups who played a round-robin to advance the top three teams in each group to a medal round of six teams. Those six teams again played a round-robin format, with preliminary group match results carried over. The top two teams in the medal round played for the gold medal, and the 3rd- and 4th-ranked teams played for the bronze. The matches were all played at the Sydney Olympic Park State Hockey Centre, which had a capacity of 15,000 spectators for the 2000 Olympics.

The 12 men’s teams qualified as follows – Australia as the host nation; India as the 1998 Asian Games Champion; Canada as the 1999 Pan American Games Champion; two teams from the 1999 EuroHockey Nations Championship (Germany, Netherlands); and eventually seven teams from the 2000 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Spain, Pakistan, Korea [South], Poland, Great Britain, Malaysia, Argentina). South Africa won the 1999 All-Africa Games title, which qualified them, but gave up their berth as they felt there were not enough black players on the team. That extra spot went to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The 1999 Ocean Cup champion was also supposed to qualify, but that was Australia, already in the field as the host nation, so that extra spot was also given to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The 10 women’s teams qualified as follows – Australia as the host nation; Korea [South] as the 1998 Asian Games Champion; Argentina as the 1999 All-Africa Games Champion; the Netherlands as the 1999 EuroHockey Nations Champion; and five teams from the 2000 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (New Zealand, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, China). The 1999 Oceania Cup champion was also supposed to qualify but that was Australia, so the extra spot was given to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Both 1996 champions defended their gold medal. The Netherlands’ men defeated Korea in the final, with Australia winning the bronze medal. The Australian Hockaroos won their third gold medal since 1988, and second consecutive, defeating the Argentine women in the final, with the Netherlands winning the bronze medal.