Who Is Vandana Katariya? First Indian Woman Hockey Player To Score Hat-trick At Olympics

Indian women's hockey team player Vandana Katariya made history on Saturday as she became the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick in hockey at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. She was the one who gave India a win of 4-3 against South Africa.

Vandana Katariya belongs to a village named Roshanabad of Bahadarabad block in Uttarakhand state. Due to her training schedule for the Olympics, she was unable to visit her family after he father passed away recently.

The 29-year-old player is the first Indian woman hockey player to score a hat-trick at the Olympics. Vandana (4th, 17th, 49th minutes) achieved this rare feat for India at a time the team has been in good form and pushing for medals across games at the Olympics.

Her family members and village folks celebrated her historic win and the team's entry into semis. She was part of the Indian women hockey team when the team played at the Asian Champion Trophy 2018. Katariya had won the player of the tournament award then and her team and won a silver medal. She was also part of the team when they played at Rio Olympics 2016. Read more about her here.

Indian women Hockey team qualified for the quarter-finals by defeating South Africa and later fought for a bronze against Great Britain.

Goal Taker

The Indian team scored four goals, three of which were contributed by Vandana Katariya. The fourth one was scored by Neha Goyal.

The South African team gave a tough competition to the Indian team as they were able to level the scores throughout the match. The winning goal was made by Katariya when there were just five minutes in the match.

Vandana rose to prominence in 2013, being India's top goal-scorer in the 2013 Women's Hockey Junior World Cup

Casteist Slurs

• 'India lost because it has too many Dalit players': Casteist slurs were thrown at hockey star Vandana Katariya’s family after team India missed their entry into the finals

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