Hockey at the 1976 Summer Olympics

Dates 18 – 30 July 1976
Medal Events 1

The 1976 Olympic hockey tournament was held at Molson Stadium on the grounds of McGill University in Montréal. This was the first Olympics at which the hockey venue would have an artificial surface, although this would later become standard, and actually required by the Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH).

The format was supposed to have 12 teams separated into two groups of six playing a round-robin series to determine the top two teams in each to advance to the semi-finals. However, Kenya joined the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics, which left only 11 teams.

The original 12 teams were selected as follows – Canada as the host nation; West Germany as the 1972 Olympic Champion; Argentina as the 1975 Pan American Champion; Kenya chosen as the African representative; the Netherlands (1973) and India (1975) as the last two World Cup Champions; and Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Spain were chosen based on FIH rankings. Great Britain and Belgium played a three-match series to determine the 12th team, which Belgium won.

The gold medal match was an All-Oceania affair, with New Zealand winning the gold medal by defeating Australia, 1-0. Pakistan, Olympic champion in 1960 and 1968, won the bronze medal with a victory over the Netherlands, 3-2.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Hockey, Men Olympic 18 – 30 July 1976 172 11
172 (172/0) 11 (11/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Hockey, Men New ZealandNZL AustraliaAUS PakistanPAK

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
New Zealand NZL 1 0 0 1
Australia AUS 0 1 0 1
Pakistan PAK 0 0 1 1