Luciana Paula Aymar (Spanish pronunciation:[luˈsjanaajˈmaɾ]; born 10 August 1977) is an Argentine retired field hockey player.[1]
She is the only player in history to receive the FIH Player of the Year Award eight times,[2] and she is considered as the best female hockey player of all time.[3][4][5] In 2010 she was granted the Platinum Konex Award as the best Hockey player of the last decade in Argentina.[6]
Luciana is known for her ability to beat opposing players using her pace and dribbling skills, drawing comparisons with Argentinian footballerDiego Maradona. For this reason she has received the nicknames "La Maga" ("The Magician") and "The Maradona of Field Hockey".
Luciana started playing at age seven for Club Atlético Fisherton in her native Rosario. She moved to Jockey Club de Rosario six years later. She gradually began training with the junior national team, for which she had to travel every day to Buenos Aires. 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 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 Junior Championship and the bronze medal at the Hockey Junior World Cup and a year later she made her debut for the Argentina senior team, finishing fourth at the 1998 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 and 2010 Hockey World Cup, with the latter being held in her hometown Rosario.
In the 2012 Summer Olympics Luciana became the second Argentine to achieve 4 medals, the first being sportsman Carlos Espínola.[7]
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
Luciana Aymar and Soledad Garcia raise the trophy after beating the Netherlands in the 2010 Hockey World Cup at Rosario.
