UBC continues to have a strong presence on the Canadian men's national field hockey team with three current Thunderbirds (
Fin Boothroyd,
Brendan Guraliuk,
Jamie Wallace) and ten alumni (Antoni Kindler, David Carter, Gordon Johnston, Keegan Pereira, Mark Pearson, Matt Sarmento, Oliver Scholfield, Scott Tupper, John Smythe, Taylor Curran) named to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games roster. Thirteen of the sixteen athletes selected to the Olympic squad have taken to the turf for the T-Birds and will continue to deliver for Canada on the world stage.
The Canadian men booked a spot in the final Olympic qualifying stage after a win at the 2019 Hockey Series Finals in Malaysia, before coming from behind in West Vancouver to win a thrilling sudden-death shootout over Ireland and earning a berth to Tokyo 2020.
Captain Scott Tupper is heading to his third Olympic games after competing at Beijing in 2008 and Rio in 2016. The former Thunderbird and Vancouver, B.C. native has 315 caps under his belt with the national team – including three consecutive Pan Am silvers at Guadalajara 2011, Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019. Tupper was also a member of Canada's most recent Pan Am gold medal winning team in 2007.
Team Canada has a healthy mix of eight returning Olympians from Rio 2016 and eight first-time Olympic participants. Tokyo 2020 is the first time Canada has qualified for back-to-back summer games since Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988, while the country's best result was fifth at the 1984 Olympic Games.
Canada's first match is slated for July 24
th against Germany at Oi Hockey Stadium with Belgium, Great Britain, Netherlands and South Africa rounding out Pool B. The final match of Canada's pool play will be a tough test against South Africa on July 30
th and the Olympic men's field hockey tournament runs through August 6
th.
