Tokyo Olympics 2020: An ‘outsider’ at Rio 2016, Alexander Hendrickx becomes Belgium’s superstar five years on

Tokyo: Five years ago, when the Belgium hockey team made their pathbreaking run to the final of the Rio Olympics, Alexander Hendrickx was in Brazil as well. But he wasn’t a part of the 16-member team. He was in Brazil’s capital as one of the two alternates each squad was allowed to name. In Tokyo, Hendrickx’s barnstorming form—he has scored 14 goals at the Games so far, including three against India during Tuesday’s semi-final—has propelled this high-flying Belgium team into the final. “When we started the Rio 2016 campaign, he was out of the Athletes’ Village as he was one of our extra players,” said Belgium coach Shane McLeod, who pointed out that the Belgian side had the worst penalty corner conversion rate at those Games. “The backstory is that Alex resolved he’s never going to be on the outside ever again. And over the last four-five years, he’s committed a massive amount of his time to develop his craft, and you can see it now. I cannot exaggerate the amount of work and effort that goes into something that he appears to make so simple.”

Hendrickx was the chief architect behind India’s 5-2 defeat to Belgium on Tuesday, with the penalty corner specialist pumping in three goals past custodian PR Sreejesh. While two of those goals came off penalty corners, one was a penalty stroke. The 27-year-old has had a hat-trick of hat-tricks at Tokyo 2020 going into the final. “I think he’s the best in the world,” continued McLeod in his post-match press conference. “You could argue that maybe there’s someone better. But I haven’t seen them.” The New Zealander explained that Hendrickx’s impact on the pitch extended to beyond just his pinpoint placement of dragflicks. The defender’s presence on the pitch, the coach reasoned, makes opposition players fret about giving away easy penalty corners and consequently give Belgian forwards more space in their circle. “He has a bigger impact than just standing at the top and flicking a ball,” said McLeod. While his coach was effusive in his praise, Hendrickx himself tried to play down his impact. “We strive for perfection during penalty corners in the injection, with the stop and then with the flick. So, it’s really a team job that comes together,” he said. “It’s my name on the scoresheet, but it’s a team job.” On being asked the secret of his success in drag flicks, he could only manage: “I don’t know. I started drag-flicking when I was really young, so a lot of hard work, and believing in yourself. All that hard work starts paying off now.” Six stitches, five goals What makes Hendrickx’s run at the Tokyo Olympics even more impressive is that in the game against Great Britain, he accidentally caught a hockey stick in his face, which required six stitches to the forehead. Him playing in the quarter-final against Spain was in doubt initially, but after he was cleared by the medics, he took the field and scored two goals in a 3-1 win. “He’s honestly a beast!” Belgium goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch had said after that game. “He’s like a rugby man now. I love it. It shows his character.”