Hockey participation drops as boys get older, while girls pick up the sport later
The number of people playing hockey in England amounted to 117,000 participants in 2020, a significant decrease on the number of hockey players in 2016. A similar trend can be seen among the younger generation, where the share of children playing hockey has decreased from 17.7 percent of 11 to 15-year-olds in 2013 to 9.8 percent in 2016. In Wales, almost 27 percent of male and 22.2 percent of female primary school students participated in some form of hockey in 2018. When taking a look at secondary school students in the same year, male participation dropped to under 15 percent, while female participation increased to 27.3 percent.Public funding for hockey on the rise
The national governing body for field hockey in England is England Hockey. The organization generates the majority of its income through government grants, while membership fees also brought in around 766 thousand British pounds in 2019. England Hockey invests a large amount of this income back into the game at grassroots level, funding development, coaching, and umpiring courses. In fact, the governing body invested almost three million British pounds into development in the 2019 season.Hockey hit by Olympic fever
Public funding for Olympic hockey has increased in recent funding cycles, totaling almost 17.13 million British pounds for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, which were then postponed to 2021 as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The men's Great British Olympic field hockey team have won gold three times since the sport was first made an Olympic discipline back in 1908. However, their most recent success came back in 1988 when they beat West Germany in the final at the Seoul Summer Olympics. The most successful men's Olympic hockey nation of all time is India, whose team have won gold a record eight times. The GB women's team, however, have tasted success much more recently. Following two third place finishes at the 1992 and 2012 Olympics, the British women's hockey team claimed their first ever gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, beating the Netherlands 2-0 in a penalty shootout after the final ended 3-3. Despite that loss, the Netherlands women's team remain joint most successful women's field hockey team at the Olympics along with Australia, with both sides having won gold three times. However, the Dutch team have also claimed silver twice and bronze on three occasions, showing themselves to be one of the powerhouses of women's international field hockey.
