page_title: Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics
section_title: Reactions and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics / Reactions and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Sally Hayfron departs Andrews Air Force Base after a state visit to the United States. Deutsch: Sally Francesca Hayfron (* 6. Juni 1931 † 27. Januar 1992), seit 1961 erste Ehefrau von Staatspräsident Robert Mugabe von Zimbabwe.
context_page_description: The 1980 Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team won the gold medal in women's field hockey at that year's Summer Olympics in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. The squad of 16 women, all from Zimbabwe's white minority, was assembled less than a month before the Olympics began to help fill the gaps the American-led Olympic boycott created in the women's hockey competition. Zimbabwe's subsequent victory in the round-robin tournament with three wins and two draws was regarded as a huge upset, particularly considering the team's lack of preparation and experience; it has been called an "irresistible fairy story". Won at a time of great political transition in Zimbabwe, the gold medal was the country's first Olympic medal of any colour.
  The 1980 Olympics were first to feature women's hockey, and the first to include Zimbabwe under that name—barred from the last three Olympics for political reasons, the country had last competed as Rhodesia in 1964. The women's hockey matches, held between 25 and 31 July, were all played on artificial turf, which none of the Zimbabwean team members had ever seen; they had also never played together until that month.
context_section_description: The victorious hockey players were immediately dubbed the "Golden Girls" by Zimbabwean reporters. They were greeted by huge crowds on their return to Zimbabwe and briefly became national celebrities. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe welcomed them home at an official function. Each member of the team was promised an ox by the Prime Minister's wife Sally, but ultimately received a polystyrene package of meat instead at a ceremony hosted by Mrs Mugabe. Many of the players emigrated over the following years, mostly to South Africa. Their victory continues to be celebrated in Zimbabwe today. The country did not win another Olympic medal until Kirsty Coventry won three swimming medals in Athens in 2004. Robert Mugabe promptly applied the "golden girl" nickname to her on her return home.
  The Zimbabwean hockey team's victory at the 1980 Olympics was widely considered a great upset. Sports historians have called it a "fairytale" and an "irresistible fairy story". While the Zimbabweans were overjoyed by their unlikely status as the first ever Olympic gold medallists in women's hockey, some, including Robert Sullivan of Sports Illustrated, felt that the Zimbabwean victory epitomised how the Western boycott had lowered competitive standards and, in their opinion, "ruined" the 1980 Olympics. While acknowledging this to an extent, Cathy Harris asserted in her 2008 retrospective on the team, published in The Sunday Times, that the victory still deserved to be recognised as a great achievement. "They freely acknowledge that they won the gold medal without competing against the best in the world", she concludes, "but, like many athletes in Moscow in 1980, they seized their chance."
caption: Sally Mugabe promised each of the players an ox, but ultimately gave them packages of meat instead.
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