As they get ready to begin their Olympic campaign  this weekend, Great Britain captain David Ames has expressed his pride at how the squad has come together after a gruelling four year cycle and a brutal selection process.

Ames is heading to his third Olympics but despite his wealth of experience he admits he has never seen competition for places as fierce as it has been for these games.

“I’m feeling very happy to be selected. A little bit mixed emotions given the work that everyone’s done within our group. Everyone knows the depth of our squad is probably the best it’s ever been so I feel happy for the guys that have been selected but there are plenty of guys who could have definitely been selected as well.”

A number of top players including Brendan Creed, Nick Bandurak, Alan Forsyth and others didn’t make the cut in what proved to be a very competitive selection for every position.

To find out if they’re going to the Olympics or not, players get sent a selection email at a set time on a set day which contains the list of athletes selected. The idea being that they can surround themselves with their support network or be on their own or do whatever else they need to in order to process being selected or not. Ames admits the whole process is a difficult one:

“It’s been very tough and just emotionally it’s taken its toll. I have some good mates I’ve known for a long time who haven’t made it but I couldn’t be prouder of all those guys who’ve given everything to this group. It’s up to the guys who have been selected to make sure we do the whole group justice.”

Doing the squad justice is very much at the forefront of Ames’ mind. He played at Rio where Great Britain exited at the pool stage and then again in Tokyo where they were knocked out by eventual bronze medal winners India at the quarter final stage. It’s fair to say he feels Great Britain owe a good performance at these Olympics.

“The squad’s in a great place for me and I’m just really excited to see the group go out there and perform. I think we know the last couple of cycles, we’ve let ourselves down a little bit when it got to the biggest stage. We haven’t quite grasped the way of winning when we got to the Olympic Games.

“But I think we’ve spoken enough over this cycle, especially with this group, about wanting to stand on podiums more times, we’ve spoken an awful lot, but also managed to do it. And that’s a big thing. Now is the crunch time. Now is where the spotlight is on and everyone can see you and everything is up for grabs. Hopefully we can do something special.”

Competition in men’s international hockey right now is fierce. Up to six sides, maybe more go into this competition with a genuine chance of winning a medal. Ames’ assessment about ‘doing something special’ is a correct one if they are to stand on the podium, but he’d like to think Great Britain can put themselves in the shake up.  

“It’s hard to tell how we’ll do, it depends what happens on the day. We’ve seen so many times throughout the Olympic Games, it’s not always the best team that wins. I’m sure our coaching staff and the players we have are going to put us in the best position possible to make sure we can win something.”

I really hope they do.