Eliza Nelson, née Eliza Mendonca (born 27 September 1956), is an Indian field hockey player and a former captain of the women's national field hockey team of India. She received the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

in 1981 and the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

in 1983.

Family

Eliza was born in a Goan family at

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, Maharashtra. She has two brothers, Augustine and Felix, and two sisters, Irene and Salome. She married Darryl, a hockey player from Kerala, and lives a retired life in Pune. She has two daughters. Andrea is a director of a pharma firm in the US and Rebecca is a fashion designer in Mumbai.

Career

Eliza Nelson joined the Western Railway hockey team in 1977. And she played for the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

She led the Indian national team that won the gold medal at the 9th Asian Games held at New Delhi in 1982. She was also a member of the team that secured fourth place at the Moscow

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. In 2001, she became the Sports Officer of Central Railway.

References

External links

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Asian Women's Hockey : Hardwork pays dividends
Sportsworld 1982 Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports 1956 births Goan Catholics Field hockey players from Pune Recipients of the Arjuna Award Olympic field hockey players for India Indian female field hockey players Field hockey players at the 1980 Summer Olympics Living people Sportswomen from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people Asian Games medalists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 1982 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for India Medalists at the 1982 Asian Games {{India-fieldhockey-bio-stub

Family

Career

See also

References

External links