Asian Champions Trophy: For the legendary Alyson Annan, target is to take China to the Olympic Games podium | Hockey News

As a player, she won two Olympic Gold Medals (1996, 2000), and two World Cups (1994, 1998) with Australia. As the coach of the Netherlands women’s team, she took them to silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016, the World Cup title in 2018, and finally, gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Then in Hangzhou, Alyson Annan guided the China women’s hockey team to the Asian Games gold medal that confirmed their place for Paris 2024. Her team broke India’s hearts along the way in the semifinal. In a career that is legendary in every sense of the word, she is now trying to add a new chapter: returning China to the heights of the early 2000s.
“We have a target of winning a medal at the Olympics,” Alyson tells The Indian Express in Ranchi where China are part of the Asian Champions Trophy. “We strive to be the best that we can be and hope to medal next year. When I took over the job, we talked about winning the Asian Games for a year and a half. You have to talk about it to make it realic.”
What keeps the 50-year-old going despite all that she has achieved? “Learning more about myself every day and giving back to the sport that I love so much, that’s given me so much is what keeps me going,” she says, adding, “And having new challenges… this is a really new cultural experience.”

Born in Wentworthville NSW in 1973, Alyson moved to the Australian Institute Sport hockey program in Perth aged 19 and was immediately recognised as a star in the making. She would go on to score 166 goals for Hockeyroos in 228 international matches over a glittering career, that ended a bit early as she retired after moving to the Netherlands.
Coaching was something Alyson knew she’d get into very early. “I grew up in a small town that didn’t have much hockey, didn’t have a didn’t have a field hockey pitch like this here in Ranchi. I went to a big city when I was young and when I was 16-17, I wanted to go back and coach, help players gain the same experiences I had,” she says.
After a few decorated years as the Netherlands head coach, things came to an unpleasant end for Alyson in early 2022 as she parted ways due to a difference of opinion with the set-up. But in May last year came the announcement that she was taking up the role with China.
“I was always intrigued the Asian teams. They seem to have a lot of qualities that I was interested in. Why aren’t they in the top four? China were there around the time when they hosted the Olympics. There seems to be a lot of quality in Asia but there doesn’t seem to be a constant flow of top four, top six teams. I think that can happen. China approached me with the opportunity and combined with my curiosity, here I am,” she says.
Chinese women are now arguably one of the most improved teams in the world and she attributes it to the belief that has been instilled into the group as well as changes in training methodologies. “With Holland, we did a lot of data-driven training. I brought that into China. We play with a lot of speed in Holland. China needed to speed up the game so I took those things into it. But you can’t take everything because it’s different cultures. We are a strong side, but we need to get fitter and faster before Paris.”
Taking up the role with China, Alyson negotiated wanting to select her own teams for the major events. She saw that China needed fast and skillful players and she used the provincial tournament to pick a big group that she trimmed down last year and started the path to Asian Games glory in January. Apart from the hockey though, she has had to adapt to the new culture as well.
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“I try and learn Mandarin. I think that speaking it is easier than reading it. You’ve got pinyin and you’ve got the characters. I just learned pinyin, I haven’t learned the characters yet,” she says. “I’m able to do the training in Chinese. Not completely and thoroughly but I can explain the training and explain a little bit to the players. And my players are learning English. It’s a sign of mutual respect. I’ve learned a lot in this last year and a half with this team.”
When the Dutch women’s team won the Olympic gold in Tokyo, Alyson became the first woman to win hockey gold medals as a player and then as a coach at separate editions. She had said then “It’s nice, but it’s not why I do this”.
So why does she do this?
“My life changed through sport. And it brought me so much,” she says. “Sport is a way to bring people together and unite people. Look where I am. I am in India with the Chinese team, I’m an Australian living in Holland. It’s wonderful.”