Eddie Ockenden’s Top Five Moments after five Olympic Games and a record 451 international games for Australia
“Just let it go” - The huge regret of Tasmanian hockey star Eddie Ockenden after his retirement this week. What he said.
Tasmania’s hockey legend Eddie Ockenden called time on his international career with the Kookaburras this week, leaving an unprecedented legacy.
A five-time Olympian with a record 451 international appearances for Australia, Ockenden, 37, carved a career path glittering with gold.
However, his CV does not include an Olympic gold medal.
Ockenden says the absence of Olympic gold will not haunt him as he moves to the next phase of his career as coach for the Tasmanian Institute of Sport’s new academy program.
“I’m pretty intense and passionate about sport, but I’m pretty easy going so I just let it go,” he said.
“You can’t do anything about it so I don’t tend to worry about it too much.
“You can be upset for a little while, but just let it go and be happy with everything else we achieved.”
EDDIE OCKENDEN TOP FIVE MOMENTS
1 – 2006 First selected for Kookaburras and Olympic Games debut in Beijing – “The first time I was told I was selected to play for Australia was here [Tasmanian Hockey Centre] on the loud speaker when I was playing a final for Tassie on one of the old turf fields.
“That was dream come true as an 18-year-old. It was the moment I realised I would be in Perth [at hockey’s High Performance Centre of Excellence] the following week and playing for Australia a few weeks after that.
“That was the highlight of the first time I got to play for Australia and led to my first Olympics, which was a dream come true. Even though as a kid you dream about it, you want to do it and you think you can do it, it wasn’t until I was actually told you’re going to Beijing that it became a reality.”
2 – 2010 World Cup gold medal – “It was my first World Cup and Australia hadn’t won one in a long time, a couple of decades, so that was pretty special. We beat Germany 2-1 in the final and I scored a goal in the sixth minute.”
3 – 2014 World Cup gold medal – “It was in the Netherlands. They put a turf field in a football [soccer] stadium and there were 20,000 Dutch in the crowd for the final. We beat them 6-1 – that was awesome.”
4 – 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games silver medal – “It was a tough preparation because of Covid. We couldn’t train, we couldn’t fly, and we went over there and played really well and won the silver.”
5 – 2024 Australian flag bearer Paris Olympic Games – “It was an incredible experience and hard to believe I got the opportunity to do that.
“When I think about it, I’m like, I don’t know if it actually happened. I was very proud in that moment to be representing Tassie and my sport. A lot of people sent me messages saying incredibly nice things to me. That made me feel very proud and honoured to be able to do that and represent where I come from and what I have been lucky enough to do.”
Originally published as Eddie Ockenden’s Top Five Moments after five Olympic Games and a record 451 international games for Australia
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