At the Harte of Ireland's journey to Olympic Games

There were two non-professional teams out of the 12 that were part of men's hockey at the 2016 Rio Olympics: Brazil and Ireland. One team made it due to the luxury of being the host nation, the other after years of dream and dejections.

While the 2008 Beijing Games was a long way away, 2012 was two seconds away. The Irish hockey team missed out on the bus for London Games after conceding a goal in the dying moments of their qualification match against South Korea.

However, the same man who was guarding the goal in that painful loss led the Ireland hockey team onto the field in the 2016 Rio Olympics: David Harte.

The towering goalkeeper shrug off that defeat, put his blinkers on and focussed on the next cycle of four years. Harte made sure his team won a historic bronze medal at the Eurohockey Championships in 2015 and beat a few higher-ranked teams to finish fifth in the Hockey World League Semifinals the same year. The result?

The Irish hockey team qualified for the Olympics after a gap of 108 years, having last played at the mega event in 1908. In fact, Harte's group of men was the first from the country to have made it to the Olympics in any team sport since 1948.

And if there was one player who deserved his name in the history books, it was Harte, having played for his country since 2006, being one its most experienced and prolific players, and turning heartbreak into history.

"It filled me with a sense of pride," Harte told DNA here as he geared up to play for Dabang Mumbai in the upcoming season of the Hockey India League (HIL).

"The opportunity to wear that green shirt, walking out on to the pitch at the Olympics for the first time since 1908. Add to that, the captaincy role was something that I'm never going to forget. The Olympics gave me memories which I'm going to carry for life," he added.

Harte, who was named the best goalkeeper by hockey's world body FIH in 2015, said their goal was to make it to the quarterfinals. Four losses and a solitary victory meant they couldn't achieve their target.

However, the green brigade managed to achieve much more: inspire future generations of hockey players to dream and believe.

"We looked at long-terms goals over the last 12 years. We were slowly but surely building and getting there, which we did by making it to the Olympics. Now, it's about inspiring the next generation and the younger hockey players coming through in Ireland to dream to fight, compete and perform at the Olympic Games, which was never there when we were growing up," Harte said.

Another aspect that wasn't there for Harte and his colleagues was support. Most Irish hockey players play the sport part-time, making money through regular jobs. For Harte, who also plays professional club hockey in The Netherlands besides being the highest-paid goalkeeper in the HIL, the challenge is to get the players together for a long period period of time in order to continue dreaming.

"The support is lacking in Ireland, simply because of the fact that it is such a minority sport and players don't have time to take off from work. They don't have time to combine both work and trying to prepare, for example, the 2018 World Cup in India. All these things are pretty difficult to deal with when you are pitted against other teams in the world, who have full-time players and are backed massively by sponsors.

"Hopefully, things will change and we will have the license to work and build a good platform for a bright future for Irish hockey in the years to come. But again, that support is really vital," Harte said.

The 28-year-old has powered on for over a decade despite that, becoming one of the world's best players and undoubtedly the best goalkeeper. It hasn't been easy for him, though.

"To be honest, the lack of support can be a bit of a distraction. There's no lying about that. But at the same time, the position at which I am in my career, playing club hockey as well as for the national team, you have to be as professional as you possibly can. There's no other way to look at it. Off field distractions can sometimes become too big, but I have learnt to separate myself from that and just focus on the job at hand and not make any excuses about that," Harte said.

He won't for another four years as well, hoping to fight on for himself and his country in the quest of another shot at the Olympics in 2020.

"I'll be 32 when the 2020 Tokyo Games come around. It's said a goalkeeper performs at his/her best in the 30s. So, we'll have to wait and see in my case. But Tokyo is definitely my goal," Harte said.

Besides, of course, another one.

"The 2016 Olympics gave us a bit of a taste of what lies ahead of us. The challenge will be to emulate it and do it once more for Tokyo 2020."

DID YOU KNOW?

David Harte's men became the first Irish hockey team to qualify for the Olympics since 1908, and the first from the country to make it to the Games in any team sport since 1948

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Ireland's currently ranking in world hockey, which is their highest

'Proud to be retained by Dabang Mumbai'

David Harte is kicked about turning up for Dabang Mumbai in the third edition of HIL beginning January 21, having been retained by the Mumbai-based franchise for the third straight year. "It's a proud feeling to have the opportunity to play for a franchise regularly. It gives you a good little feeling of confidence that a team is putting its faith in you year in and year out," he said. According to Harte, this year's squad is one of the strongest that Mumbai have ever had. "We're a lot more experienced now. To have the likes of Nikkin Thimmaiah back in the set-up, plus the experience that the five Indian juniors would've got after winning the Junior World Cup, that can all add up to a very successful campaign for us."