Naomi Carroll has been included in Team Ireland’s selection of sixteen hockey players to represent the country at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Off the back of an impressive EuroHockey Championships for the Green Army, the Cratloe woman has been included in the squad that will compete in Oi Hockey Stadium from the 24 July until the 6 August 2021.
Twenty eight year old Naomi has 115 caps to her name, the first of which was collected against Wales in 2012. She first took up the sport at the age of 14 and is well known in Clare sporting circles for her exploits at county level in both camogie and ladies football. A past pupil of St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon, she also represented the Republic of Ireland women’s national football team at schoolgirl level.
In November 2019 the women’s hockey team became the first Irish women’s hockey team to qualify for the Olympic Games, when they bettered Canada on Irish soil in front of a home crowd. The Tokyo 2020 team is largely formed from that record breaking crew, which also features the majority of the 2018 World Cup Silver Medal winning squad.
This summer they will compete in Pool A, alongside South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, India and Olympic Champions, Great Britain. Their first competition takes place on Saturday 24th July against South Africa.
Ballyvaughan’s Liam Jegou was the first member of Team Ireland confirmed to take part in the Olympics. He made history in November with Ireland’s first ever canoe slalom gold in a World Cup event and this on the back of a team silver at the Europeans two months earlier.
