NOV. 4, 2022

Santiago 2023: National Stadium Field Hockey Training Center Handed Over

It is the first venue built for the Pan American and Parapan American Games to be completed. It will also contain the first public hockey pitches in Chile. 

Sports Minister Alexandra Benado, together with Sports Undersecretary Antonia Illanes, handed over the long-awaited training center to members of the Chilean Field Hockey Association and the men’s and women’s national teams. The hockey center has been built in Santiago’s National Stadium Park. 

It is an important milestone, as it becomes the first venue built for the Santiago 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games to be handed over for use as a training center. 

At the event, the “Diablas” women’s national field hockey team, recent South American champions, and the “Diablos” men’s national field hockey team held a sports clinic for children from the municipalities of Renca, Quinta Normal, Santiago, San Bernardo and Puente Alto. 

The sports venue that has been handed over includes two fully-equipped pitches with lighting, space for warming up, offices, bathrooms and dressing rooms. This new space will provide a center for hockey players who did not previously have a public venue in which to train and compete. 

This space will also be used during the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, and will follow an administration model that includes high-performance, community and training uses. 

Construction of the center involved an initial investment of $5,693,884,700 Chilean pesos (US$6,208,913). 

Field hockey has brought great joy to Chile in recent times, and more and more people are practicing it up and down the country. The “Diablos” will be participating in a world cup for the first time in India in January 2023. The “Diablas” also qualified for this year’s world cup in the Netherlands and Spain for the first time, where they achieved their first victories in a global event.

The Chilean women’s team were also champions in the last South American Games in Asunción, where they overcame none other than Argentina’s “Leonas”, who were runners-up in the same world cup in which Chile participated.