PR Sreejesh, who will compete in his fourth Olympics this year, refused to think that the forthcoming edition in Paris would be his final participation in the sports spectacular.
PR Sreejesh, goalkeeper for the Indian men’s hockey team, does not want to foresee his future and will decide whether to retire after the Paris Olympics, but the veteran custodian hopes to be the national team’s head coach by 2036. Sreejesh, who will compete in his fourth Olympics this year, refused to think that the 2018 edition in Paris would be his final participation in the sports spectacular. He stays positive, but has stated that after he retires, he intends to give back to the game in some capacity.
“This Olympics is extremely significant to me since it is difficult for me to think about the next four years at this age. Since the past Olympics, I’ve been taking one year at a time. In an interview with PTI, Sreejesh stated that the remaining decisions will be made after the Olympics.
“I don’t think so (it will be his final Olympics), because when you’re 36 and do a beep test of 20.8, I believe that’s fairly fantastic.
“(But) I’ll definitely take a sabbatical after my career. I will need time to transition from player to coach, assistant coach, or goalkeeper coach. My plan is for a long time. My plans are for 2036 or 2040.
“I want to grow myself; I want to picture myself as a coach or chief coach of the Indian national hockey team at that time, when I will be more experienced. “I want to be a part of an Indian independent coaching staff of the national hockey team,” he said.
Sreejesh, who captained the national team in the 2016 Rio Olympics, was instrumental in India’s historic bronze medal win at the Tokyo Games, and he believes the current team has the ability to perform even better in Paris.
“Every athlete’s objective is to win a gold medal at the Olympics, but you must weigh the realistic elements. All six of the world’s top teams are now competing against one another. “We have an open pool where anyone can beat anyone,” he explained.
“I believe that we have got the potential to finish on the podium for sure but you can’t be overconfident.” Renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who was with the squad at the Hangzhou Asian Games, will work with the Indian players in the lead-up to the Olympics and will also be in Paris, chief coach Craig Fulton has announced.
Sreejesh believes Upton’s presence will help the team deal with the “mental confusion.”
“The Olympics is not a typical platform. There are several things to consider: it is a pressure venue, a fantasy universe, and a festival. It is the type of circumstance that may captivate any gamer. Paddy was a member of the cricket team that won the World Cup in 2011; he is an experienced individual who can assist us in making sound decisions and clearing our minds.” India will go to Perth next month for a five-Test series against Australia, and Sreejesh believes the journey is significant.
“The Pro League’s India leg was a good phase that we liked and gained knowledge from. We are currently proceeding because this is a process leading up to the Olympics. We made a lot of novel attempts. Preliminary League is like a practice test before the major one.
The majority of the opponents we faced in this game are ones we’ll face at the Olympics. We wanted to see how they responded to the things we wanted to do. The way other teams responded to our adjustments came in second, and the players’ responses to the pressure came in third,” he stated.
