Aran Zalewski (born 21 March 1991) is an Australian

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player who is the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the Australian national team.

Personal

He is from Margaret River, Western Australia. he attended Aquinas College in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. As a 12- and 13-year-old, he played in the Margaret River South West League.

Field hockey

He is a centre-half. He played junior hockey in

Margaret River The Margaret River is a river in southwest Western Australia. In a small catchment, it is the eponym of the town and tourist region of Margaret River. The river arises from a catchment of just 40 square kilometres in the Whicher Range. The ...

. As a 12- and 13-year-old, he played in the Margaret River South West League. He made his state team debut when he was 15 years old.

National team

He participated in a training camp for the first time in October 2011. He had his first call up to the national team in October 2011 in a game against India at the

Bunbury Hockey Stadium Bunbury may refer to: Places * Bunbury, Cheshire, England Australia *Bunbury, South Australia, a locality **Bunbury Conservation Reserve, a protected area in South Australia. * Bunbury, Western Australia, a city in Western Australia ** Bunbury, We ...

. He scored a goal in his debut in the 57th minute, a game Australia won 5–0. In December 2011, he was named as one of fourteen players to be on the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Australian men's national Olympic development squad. While this squad is not in the top twenty-eight and separate from the Olympic training coach, the Australian coach

Ric Charlesworth Richard Ian Charlesworth AO (born 6 February 1952) is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for the Kookaburras (the Australian national team), winn ...

did not rule out selecting from only the training squad, with players from the Olympic development having a chance at possibly being called up to represent Australia at the Olympics. He trained with the team from 18 January to mid-March in

. He was named the best player of the 2019 FIH Pro League after Australia won the first edition of the

FIH Pro League FIH Pro League may refer to: *Men's FIH Pro League, a tournament in men's field hockey *Women's FIH Pro League The Women's FIH Pro League is an international women's field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (F ...

. In December 2019, he was nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award. Zalewski was selected in the

Kookaburras Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri ''guuguubarra'', onomatopoeic of its call. The ...

Olympics squad for the

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. The team reached the final for the first time since 2004 but couldn't achieve gold, beaten by Belgium in a shootout.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zalewski, Aran 1991 births Living people Australian people of Polish descent Australian male field hockey players Male field hockey midfielders 2014 Men's Hockey World Cup players Field hockey players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup players Olympic field hockey players of Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia People from Margaret River, Western Australia Field hockey players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in field hockey 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people People educated at Aquinas College, Perth Sportsmen from Western Australia 2023 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup players