Alyson Regina Annan OAM (born 12 June 1973) is a former field hockey player from Australia, who earned a total number of 228 international caps for the Women’s National Team, in which she scored 166 goals.
Annan was born on 12 June 1973 in Wentworthville, New South Wales. She was voted the Best Female Hockey Player in the World in 1999. In the following year, lead the Australian team to gold at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She subsequently retired from international competition and moved to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands she played for HC Klein Zwitserlandfrom The Hague. She retired in 2003, becoming the coach of Dutch league team HC Klein Zwitserland. In 2004 she was an assistant of Dutch Head Coach Marc Lammers at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, when the Netherlandswon silver.
Annan was married to Argentinian hockey player, Maximiliano Caldas. After their divorce her partner became Carole Thate, a former Dutch hockey captain and fellow Olympic medallist. Annan and Thate had their first child, Sam, in May 2007. Their second son, Cooper, was born in October 2008.
Annan was to be the coach of the first women’s team of the Amsterdamsche Hockey & Bandy Club during the 2012-2013 season.
In 2013 Annan was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
In October 2015 she was named as head coach of the Netherlands women’s team, succeeding Sjoerd Marijne. Annan’s former husband Max Caldas previously coached the Netherlands women’s team to a gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Alyson’s journey to becoming Head Coach of the Netherlands Team
“One of Australia’s greatest female hockey players Alyson Annan has been appointed head coach of the Dutch women’s team for next year’s Rio Olympics.
Annan was regarded as the best female player in the world during the 1990s, when she played a key role in the Hockeyroos’ successive Olympic victories in 1996 and 2000.
After the Sydney Olympic triumph, Annan moved to the Netherlands to play hockey and then moved into coaching there after she retired.
She was coaching the Amsterdam men’s team until the Dutch hockey association announced yesterday that she would succeed Sjoerd Marijne as the head women’s coach.
The world champion Dutch team was upset by England at the European championships in London in August, prompted a coaching review from the Dutch administration.
“Based on the interviews and her record as a coach and player we concluded that Alyson was the best candidate to succeed Sjoerd as coach,’’ technical director Arno den Hartog said.
Annan’s appointment places her on a collision course with her former team, as the Hockeyroos are ranked second in the world and reached last year’s World Cup final.
Both teams are eyeing off next year’s Olympic gold medal in Rio.
In her 2004 biography, Beyond the Limits, Annan expressed her desire to become the first woman to coach the Hockeyroos following in the footsteps of her “mentor and tormentor’’ Ric Charlesworth.
But her opportunity has come with the Dutch team first.
Charlesworth said Annan had developed into a fine technical coach and would have a very good team of players at her disposal.
“That’s a prestigious position in hockey so she’s done well,’’ he said.
In an interesting coincidence, Annan takes the reins of the women’s team while her ex-husband Max Caldas, a former Argentine international, is the Dutch men’s coach.
Caldas coached the Dutch women to the gold medal in London in 2012.
After they broke up in 2000, Annan formed a new relationship with the former Dutch women’s captain Carole Thate. They married and have two children.”
Originally from – The Australian
Follow Alyson on twitter: @alysonannan4
