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Luciana Aymar

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Luciana Paula Aymar is a retired professional field hockey player from Argentina. She is widely considered the greatest female hockey player in history. Many people call her "La Maga," which means "The Magician." This nickname describes her incredible skill on the field. She used great pace and dribbling to move past opponents. People often compare her to the famous footballer Diego Maradona. Because of this, she is sometimes called "The Maradona of Field Hockey."

Paseo de los Olímpicos Rosario 2019 56
Paseo de los Olímpicos Rosario 2019 56

Aymar's journey in sports began when she was only seven years old. She first played for Club Atlético Fisherton in her hometown of Rosario. Six years later, she joined the Jockey Club de Rosario. To improve, she traveled to Buenos Aires every day for training. This training was with the junior national team. Later, she played for clubs in Germany and Spain. She played for Rot Weiss Köln and Real Club de Barcelona. In Argentina, she played for Quilmes Atlético Club and GEBA.

Her international career started very early in her life. In 1997, she played for the Argentina junior team. That team won the Pan American Games Junior Championship. They also won a bronze medal at the Hockey Junior World Cup. A year later, she joined the Argentina senior team. She was only 16 years old at that time. This made her the youngest player ever accepted into the squad. In 1998, her team finished fourth at the Hockey World Cup.

Aymar was a key part of a very successful generation. Her team won many major international tournaments. They won four Olympic medals and six Champions Trophies. She helped Argentina win the Hockey World Cup in 2002. They also won the World Cup again in 2010. That tournament was held in her hometown of Rosario. Her team also won several Pan American Games medals. These included gold medals in 1999, 2003, and 2007. She also won a silver medal in 2011.

Individual honors highlight her amazing talent and consistency. Aymar is the only player to win the FIH Player of the Year Award eight times. She won these awards in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013. In 2010, she received the Platinum Konex Award. This named her the best hockey player of the last decade in Argentina. She was also the Player of the Tournament at the Champions Trophy ten times. She won this title in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. She also earned Player of the Tournament honors at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Aymar reached a high honor. She served as the flag bearer for Argentina. She was only the second field hockey athlete to do this. The first was Marcelo Garraffo. Her legacy is celebrated through many different ways. A 2016 documentary film titled "Lucha: Playing the Impossible" tells her story. The title uses her nickname, Lucha, which is also the Spanish word for "fight." This film shows her success from Argentina to the world stage.

Today, her influence remains visible in the world of sports. In Rosario, there is a large stadium named after her. It is called the Estadio Mundialista Luciana Aymar. This stadium was built to host the 2010 Women's Field Hockey World Cup. It has a seating capacity for 12,000 spectators. Aymar now lives in Chile with her husband and two children. She was born to René Aymar and Nilda Vicente de Aymar. Her career changed the way people view women's field hockey forever.

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File:Paseo de los Olímpicos Rosario 2019 56.jpg
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