By Daniel Leussink
TOKYO (Reuters) – Argentina goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi hopes his team mates will join him in getting an Olympic tattoo if the reigning champions come out on top of the men’s hockey tournament at the Tokyo Games.
Since men’s hockey debuted at the 1908 London Games, India, the Netherlands and Germany are the only nations to have won the men’s gold at two consecutive Olympics.
So it would be nothing short of historic for Argentina to do the same.
“I feel like if we have the luck of winning again, we can do a next tattoo with the whole team,” Vivaldi said on Friday after they reached https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/hockey-spain-march-into-mens-quarter-finals-indias-women-win-2021-07-30 the quarter-finals.
He added it was still players’ personal decision.
Vivaldi, 42, had the five Olympic rings and the words “Rio 2016” and “gold” tattooed on his right biceps to celebrate winning five years ago, which he said was an “epic moment.”
“We will see this time,” he said.
The goalie is the oldest player in Tokyo’s Olympic hockey tournament and is planning to retire when it’s over.
Vivaldi deserved to be at the Games given how he trains and reacts, said team mate Agustin Mazzilli.
“I think he’s a legend now and the best goalie we have in the history of Argentina,” he said.
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
