Eddie Ockenden

Eddie Ockenden, who made his international debut in 2006, became Australia's first hockey player to appear at five Olympic Games at Paris 2024.

A midfielder who doubles as a striker, Eddie's remarkable international career includes more than 450 games played for his country and a slew of trophies, including two World Cup titles, four Commonwealth Games gold medals, Olympic silver and two Olympic bronze medals.

His excellence has been recognised along the journey with the FIH’s Young Player of the Year award in 2008, followed by being named Hockey Australia’s Player of the Year in 2010, 2014 and 2015.

Highlights of Eddie’s career include gold at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, stunning the India team 8-0 in front of their home fans, and scoring in the gold medal-winning game against Germany at the 2010 World Cup.

However, heartbreak came at the 2012 Olympics losing to Germany in the semi-finals – their first defeat of the tournament – but rebounding to win the bronze with a 3-1 over Great Britain.

World Cup gold in The Hague and Commonwealth gold in Glasgow, both in 2014, helped soften the blow but the Rio 2016 Olympics inflicted more pain. Australia was heavily-backed favourites to take Olympic gold, but lost 4-0 to The Netherlands in the quarter-finals to finish sixth.

Despite a disrupted 2020 for most athletes, one giant accolade came Eddie’s way when he surpassed Jamie Dwyer (365) as the most capped Kookaburra with 366 when he played FIH Pro League matches against Argentina in Perth.

The hockey veteran became a four-time Olympian at Tokyo 2020, where he achieved his best Olympic placing, winning silver. Eddie was the backbone of the team at the postponed Games in 2021, captaining the squad in the gold medal match in which they narrowly lost to Belgium in a tense penalty shootout.

It was a devastating loss for the men in yellow and green, but just a year later Australia and Eddie were back winning trophies, bringing home their seventh – and Eddie’s fourth – Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham.

Remarkably, Eddie has never lost a game at the Commonwealth Games and was chosen as an Australian Flag Bearer for the 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

That year he earned his 400th Australian cap in a friendly against India, becoming the Australian with the most field hockey appearances.

The Kookaburras qualified for Paris when they ground out a 3-1 win over traditional rivals New Zealand to retain the 2023 Oceania Cup in Whangarei.

As Eddie’s teammates will attest, supreme fitness is a huge factor in his longevity. The GPS unit on his back confirms that he has run more than 7km in each of the more than 400 Kookaburras games he has played – which tallies up to close to 3000km. And all of that is high-intensity running, often with four or five games in as many days.

“There is no real secret, I have just kept it relatively simple,” Eddie said. “I love the game.”

Teammate Jeremy Hayward said of Eddie: “He’s a silky mover with and without the ball … he’s one hell of a player. He’s always thinking about the game, thinking about how he can get better.”

Paris 2024 Olympic Team Chef de Mission Anna Meares chose Eddie to be an Australian Flag Bearer for the Opening Ceremony on the River Seine, alongside Jessica Fox.

Eddie was the second Australian hockey player to become an Olympic Flag Bearer, following in the footsteps of Ric Charlesworth who led the Team at Seoul 1988.

“Eddie is humble but driven," Meares said. "He is hardworking and dedicated. He is a great leader in himself, and I know he will lead our team together with Jess with immense pride, gratitude and grace."

The significance of the appointment meant a lot to Eddie.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to now have this honour and experience something with such a strong history and deep meaning," he said. “I’m immensely proud to be representing Australia, Tasmania and my sport hockey."

Eddie and the Kookaburras defeated Argentina (1-0), Ireland (2-1) and New Zealand (5-0) in the group stage, which included losses to India (3-2) and Belgium (6-2).

Through to the quarter-finals, that's where their campaign would end with a 2-0 loss to the eventual Olympic gold medallists, the Netherlands.