The ball crosses the line, my heart stops……we’ve done it……we are Olympic Champions!

I still have the image clear in my head.  I remember the ball leaving Jamie’s stick and travelling towards the net, clipping the keepers pads as it sailed into the back of the net. In my mind it all happens so much slower than it does when I watch the goal on replay. What an awesome time in my career as a Kookaburra that was, but it was what happened shortly afterwards that I will never forget.

As the ball crossed that line, I remember feeling ‘numb’. At that moment in my life all my dreams had come true and finally the Kookaburras had won an Olympic Gold Medal. In such a moment you experience so many emotions and as they all crashed together a feeling of numbness came across me. Not knowing what to with myself I thought I’d better go and join in the celebrations with the boys, who by this stage had taken off up the wing chasing Jaimie Dwyer, the golden goal scorer.

After all the jubilation, singing, crying, hugging and I’m sure someone probably kissed me as well, we made our way back to the dugout to prepare for the medal ceremony.  As I made my way across the field I shook hands with the players from Holland who were gracious in defeat and had waited to congratulate us as we made our way off the pitch.  I sat down on the bench in our dugout, unable to wipe the smile off my face and as I took my shin pads off I looked up to see the best piece of Sportsmanship anyone could ever witness, and to this day, almost 5 years later, I sit here admiring the character of Jeroen Delmee.

Jeroen was the captain of the Dutch team. He has twice won an Olympic Gold in 1996 and 2000 and has since played over 400 games of international hockey. He is a great ambassador for the game and this act re-inforces that statement.

As I looked up whilst I was taking off my ‘shinnies,’ I watched as Jeroen came up to congratulate Jaimie on scoring the goal and winning the game. But it was at that moment, from his pocket, Jeroen pulled out the match winning ball, gave it to Jaimie and told him how he had picked it up from the back of the net to give to him.

I find it astonishing for someone to do such a thing at a time in their life where they would have felt extremely disappointed. To sit there and see the last 4 years of preparation and your dream of winning an Olympic Gold medal ‘shattered,’ to then go and perform such an act of sportsmanship truly is a testament to his character.

Its every international hockey player’s dream to win an Olympic Gold Medal and when you just miss out on it, it hurts. It hurts to think that you can come so close and just not put things together on the day, and if given a different day, it could have been a different result.

But that’s the great thing about sport and that’s why I love playing it. It tests you mentally, physically and most importantly it question’s your character. On 27th August 2004, the character of Jeroen Delmee certainly shone through.