Hockey at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Both Men’s and Women’s hockey took place at the Oi Hockey Stadium, with North and South pitches. There was one qualifier from each of the five continents – usually the continental champions. The remainder of the qualifiers were determined by a series of play-off matches, based upon the FIH Pro-Hockey league positions from 2019 and FIH rankings. This was one sport where all the qualifiers were known prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Matches were played over four 15 minute quarters with 2 minutes rest after each quarter and 15 minutes rest at half-time. In elimination contests, scores tied after 60 minutes resulted in a shoot-out. Squads of 18 players per team were allowed, with any 16 being selected for any match and 11 players on the field of play at any one time. Each team had one referral they could use to challenge an umpire’s decision during a match – if the referral was proved correct it was retained by the successful team.