Indian women's hockey team defeated South Africa 4-3 in their last match of Group A. Vandana Kataria, a resident of Roshanabad, a small village in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, created history by scoring 3 goals in the match. She became the first female hockey player from India to score a hat-trick of goals in an Olympic match. 29-year-old Vandana first wanted to become a Kho-Kho player, but due to good running speed, started playing hockey.
In 2005, she did not have money for hockey training. After this, Vandana's father Nahar Singh Kataria somehow arranged money by borrowing and helped her daughter to fulfill her dreams. Nahar Singh died two months before the Tokyo Olympics. After this, Vandana made his memory as her inspiration. The only goal was to win the Olympic medal for the father.
Vandana says that a head in school advised me to play hockey instead of kho-kho. I thought he was joking, but he was serious. At his behest, I started playing hockey. My running was good, so I came to Meerut.
After this reached Lucknow in 2006 and started training. My family members did not want me to become a player and go out as a girl, but my father used to support me. He helped me a lot, so people started taunting him too.
Vandana is the youngest child of 7 siblings. Vandana's 5 siblings are associated with sports. Elder sister Reena Kataria is a hockey coach in Bhopal Excellency and younger sister Anjali Kataria is a hockey player. Two brothers Pankaj Karate and Saurabh Kataria are football players and coaches.
Vandana's father used to work in BHEL. Vandana says that many times the situation used to become such that I did not have money to train outside. Papa used to borrow and send me for training. In 2005, I started playing for Uttar Pradesh team. I was lucky that in 2011, I got a job on the post of Junior TC in Railways from sports quota. In 2010, I got selected in the national women's hockey team.
Since then Vandana never looked back. She scored the most goals in the 2013 Women's Hockey Junior World Cup and helped the team win the bronze medal. Vandana had told in an interview that after the Junior World Cup, the media people interviewed my father. There were tears in his eyes at that time. Making my father proud is one of the best moments in my hockey journey.
After this, she was a part of Team India, which won the bronze medal in the 2014 Asian Games. She also represented Team India in Rio Olympics. Kataria has played 218 matches for India and has scored 58 goals.
Vandana gives full credit for her selection in the national team to her Lucknow coaches Vishnu Prakash Sharma and Poonam Lata. His favorite player is Luciana Aymar of Argentina. He was also nominated for the Arjuna Award in 2021.
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