The 1980 Zimbabwe women's national field hockey team won the gold medal at that year's
Summer Olympics in Moscow in the
Soviet Union. The 16 teammates, all from
Zimbabwe's
white minority, were assembled less than a month before the Olympics, after an American-led
boycott reduced the number of teams competing. It was the first time the
women's field hockey event had been held at the Olympics. After beating
Poland and the
Soviet Union and drawing with
Czechoslovakia and
India, the Zimbabweans secured the gold on the final day with a 4–1 victory over
Austria. Their victory was considered a huge upset, particularly considering the short time the team had to prepare. Won at a time of great transition in Zimbabwe (formerly as
Rhodesia, the country had been barred from the previous three Olympics, and only in April 1980 had Zimbabwe achieved international recognition of its independence), the gold medal was the nation's first Olympic medal of any colour. The players were dubbed the "Golden Girls" by the Zimbabwean press and were briefly national celebrities. Zimbabwe did not win another Olympic medal until 2004. (
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