Luciana Aymar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic medal record
Women's field hockey
Silver	2000 Sydney	Team
Bronze	2004 Athens	Team

**Luciana Aymar**
Personal information
Date of birth	August 10, 1977
Place of birth	Rosario, Argentina
Height	1.72m
Nickname	Lucha, La Maga
Position	Attack
Professional clubs
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1998 1999 2000-	Rot Weiss Köln Rugby Club Polo Quilmes	?(?) ?(?) ?(?)
National team
1997-1998 1998-	Argentina Junior Argentina	?(?) ?(?)
Olympic Games	2000-	Silver(2000) Bronze(2004)
World Cup	1998-	Gold(2002) Bronze(2006)
Champions Trophy	2000-	Gold(2001) Silver(2002) Bronze(2004) Bronze(2005)
Infobox last updated on: 6 October 2006.

Luciana Paula Aymar (born on August 10, 1977 in Rosario) is an Argentine field hockey professionall attacking player, and the only player to receive the FIH World's best player of the year award three times. She is known for her ability to conduct the ball on the pitch dribbling opponent players, for which she has been compared with Argentine football (soccer) legend Diego Maradona^[1].

Lucha Aymar started playing at age seven at the local Fisherton Club in Rosario, moving to Jockey Club de Rosario six years later. She began training with the junior national team, for what she had to travel every other day to Buenos Aires. In 1997 she won the Pan American Games Junior Championship, and a year later had her debut with the senior team, finishing forth at the World Cup.

Aymar is part of a generation in Argentine hockey that won several international tournaments from the 1999 Pan American Games, including a silver olympoc medal, and a Champions Trophy. Nicknamed La Maga ("The Magician"), she had outstanding performances that drove her to be chossen IHF best player of the year three times, once more than hockey legend Alyson Annan.

1 Trivia
2 Titles
3 Awards and distinctions
4 References

[edit] Trivia

She was offered US$20.000 to be in the cover of the Argentina Playboy Magazine, but turned it down.
Her boyfriend is also a hockey player of the Quilmes Club.

[edit] Titles

Titles with the national or junior national teams unless otherwise specified.

1997 - Gold medal at the Junior Pan American Games (held in Chile)
1997 - Bronze medal at the Junior World Cup (Korea)
1998 - European club championship (with Rot Weiss Köln, from Germany)
1999 - Gold medal at the Pan American Games (Winnipeg, Canada)
2000 - Silver medal at the Olympic Games (Sydney, Australia)
2001 - Gold medal at the Champions Trophy (Amstelveen, Netherlands)
2002 - Silver medal at the Champions Trophy (Macau, China)
2002 - Gold medal at the World Cup (Perth, Australia)
2003 - Gold medal at the Pan American Games (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
2004 - Bronze medal at the Champions Trophy (Rosario, Argentina)
2004 - Bronze medal at the Olympic Games (Athens, Greece)
2005 - Bronze medal at the Champions Trophy (Rosario, Argentina)
2006 - Bronze medal at the World Cup (Madrid, Spain)

[edit] Awards and distinctions

2000 - Champions Trophy's player of the tournament
2001 - FIH World's Best Player of the Year
2001 - Champions Trophy's player of the tournament
2004 - FIH World's Best Player of the Year
2005 - FIH World's Best Player of the Year

Preceded by Alyson Annan	WorldHockey Player of the Year 2001	Succeeded by Cecilia Rognoni
Preceded by Mijntje Donners	WorldHockey Player of the Year 2004-2005	Succeeded by Minke Booij