Simon James Law Child (born 16 April 1988) is a New Zealand

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player, who earned his first cap for the national team, ''The Black Sticks'', in 2005 against

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Personal life

Simon Child was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. He has a younger brother, Marcus, who also plays representative hockey for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Career

Club Hockey

At club level, Child plays hockey for his home city of

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

in the New Zealand National Hockey League. In 2015, he relocated to India to represent the

Delhi Waveriders Delhi Waveriders was a professional field hockey team based in Delhi that played in the Hockey India League. It was owned by The Wave Group. Franchisee details Ownership The team is owned by The Wave Group, after the company bought the Franchis ...

in the Hockey India League.

National team

Following his debut in 2005, Child was a regular inclusion for the Black Sticks for over ten years. His first major international tournament was the 2006 World Cup in Mönchengladbach,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He followed this up with appearances at the 2008, 2012 and

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. From 2014 to 2016, Child was captain of the national team. He also played in three editions of the Commonwealth Games, in 2006, 2010 and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. In the bronze medal playoff against England at the 2014 tournament, Child scored twice but was one of the New Zealand players who missed in the penalty shoot-out after the game finished as a 3–3 draw. He played club hockey in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

for HC Rotterdam. Following the 2016 Olympics, Child suffered a number of injuries forcing him out of competition for almost three years. In August 2019, he was named to make his return during the Ready Steady Tokyo Olympic Test event in Tokyo, Japan.

International tournaments

* World Cup – 2006, 2014 * Commonwealth Games – 2006, 2010, 2014 * Sultan Azlan Shah Cup – 2006, 2018, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 * Champions Challenge I – 2007, 2009, 2014 *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

– 2008, 2012, 2016 * Champions Trophy – 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 * FIH World League – 2012–13, 2014–15

References

External links