CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Wednesday marks 100 days from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Team USA athletes across the country are training ahead of the Summer Games, including the USA women's field hockey team which is working hard at UNC Charlotte.
The team's captain, Ashley Hoffman, shared how the team fell short of qualifying for the Summer Games in Tokyo, but this time, the team is focused.
"We ended up winning every single game," Hoffman said after they didn't qualify.
In 100 days, the team will hit the pitch in Paris, France, and this year, their advantage starts back stateside. They are practicing on the same turf the team will play on during the 2024 Paris Games.
“This is built to the same specks of the Olympic field," David Koerner, one of the co-founders of the United States Performance Center, said. "We are the largest center for field hockey in the United States. It definitely helped them prepare and quality for the Paris Games.”
There are only two of this type of turf fields in the world.
“Sometimes you get a field that you haven’t trained on, and it’s really thick, and you haven’t been training on it," Hoffman explained. “I think we have a real advantage training on this turf.”
It's a turf many American athletes never played on growing up.
“That puts us at a disadvantage, playing on grass," Hoffman said. "We are excited it’s the same one.”
This underdog team is ready to bite back.
Contact Austin Walker at awalker@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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