Luciana Paula Aymar (; born 10 August 1977) is an Argentine retired field hockey player. She is the only player in history to receive the

FIH Player of the Year Award The FIH Player of the Year Awards are awarded annually by the International Hockey Federation to the male and female field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield pl ...

eight times, and she is considered as the best female hockey player of all time. In 2010 she was granted the Platinum

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

as the best Hockey player of the last decade in Argentina. Luciana is known for her ability to beat opposing players using her pace and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

skills, drawing comparisons with Argentinian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

. For this reason she has received the nicknames "La Maga" ("The Magician") and "The Maradona of Field Hockey". Aymar was the

flag bearer A standard-bearer, also known as a flag-bearer is a person (soldier or civilian) who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a f ...

for Argentina at 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 ...

, becoming the second field hockey athlete being honoured this way after

Marcelo Garraffo Marcelo Omar Garraffo Biano (born September 5, 1957) is a retired field hockey player from Argentina who competed in three Summer Olympics for his native country. At his Olympic debut at the 1976 Summer Olympics he ended up in 11th place with ...

Career

Luciana started playing at age seven for Club Atlético Fisherton in her native

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

. She moved to

Jockey Club de Rosario Jockey Club de Rosario is an Argentine sports and social club from Rosario, Santa Fe. One of the richest clubs in the country, Jockey Club possesses its own racetrack, hara, golf course, tennis courts and swimming pools. Counting more than 1,500 ...

six years later. She gradually began training with the junior national team, for which she had to travel every day to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In her international career she played for Rot Weiss Köln from Germany and for Real Club de Barcelona from Spain. In her country, Luciana played for

Quilmes Atlético Club Quilmes Atlético Club () is an Argentine sports club based in the Quilmes district of Greater Buenos Aires. Established in 1887 (although the date of foundation is still under dispute), Quilmes is the oldest club of Argentina still competing i ...

and GEBA, where she won La Liga Nacional (The National League) and the Torneo Metropolitano. In 1997 she was part of the Argentina junior team that won the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

Junior Championship and the bronze medal at the

Hockey Junior World Cup The Men's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, formerly known as the Hockey Junior World Cup, is an international field hockey competition organized by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1979. Since 1985 it has been ...

and a year later she made her debut for the

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

senior team, finishing fourth at the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Hockey World Cup. She was the youngest Argentine to be accepted into the squad when she was just 16. Aymar was part of a generation in Argentine field hockey that went on to win several international tournaments from the 1999 Pan American Games onwards, including four Olympic medals, and six Champions Trophies. She was part of the squad that won the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Hockey World Cup, with the latter being held in her hometown

. In 2008, Luciana was declared Legend of Hockey by

International Hockey Federation The Fédération Internationale de Hockey (English: International Hockey Federation), commonly known by the acronym and initialism, acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey. Its headquarters are i ...

. She was the flag bearer for her country at the opening ceremony of the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Com ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil and at the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In the 2012 Summer Olympics Luciana became the second Argentine to achieve 4 medals, the first being sportsman Carlos Espínola. :es:Carlos Mauricio Espínola Luciana played her last international game with Argentina on Sunday 7 December 2014, in the city of Mendoza, Argentina, winning her sixth Champions Trophy.

Awards and honours

International

;Argentina Junior *Pan American Games: Gold Medal (1997) *Junior World Cup: Bronze Medal (1997) ;

: Gold Medal (

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

), Silver Medal (

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

) *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

: Silver Medal (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

), Bronze Medal (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

). * Champions Trophy: Gold Medal (

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

), Silver Medal (

), Bronze Medal (

) *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

: Gold Medal (

), Bronze Medal (

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

)

Club

;

Rot-Weiss Köln Kölner Tennis- und Hockey-Club Stadion Rot-Weiss e.V., also known as KTHC Stadion Rot-Weiss or simply Rot-Weiss Köln, is a German professional field hockey and tennis club based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. The home ground is the Kölner S ...

*European Club Championship: 1998 ;

Real Club de Polo de Barcelona Real Club de Polo de Barcelona ( en, Barcelona Royal Polo Club) is a country club in Barcelona, Spain. Established in 1897, it had 9000 members at the time of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Normally used for polo, field hockey, tennis, squash, and swimm ...

*Copa de la Reina: 2004 ; GEBA *Liga Nacional: 2008, 2009 *Torneo Metropolitano: 2008, 2009

Individual

* Champions Trophy's Player of the Tournament: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 * FIH Player of the Year: 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 *

's Player of the Tournament: 2002, 2010

References

External links