Fans fume with Olympics hockey player after causing huge brawl with 'unsportsmanlike' reaction to winning gold

Further controversy has engulfed the 2024 Paris Olympics hockey schedule after one player caused a huge brawl with his opposition players in the aftermath of winning gold over an act fans have described as 'very very bad and unsportsmanlike'.

The incident came just hours after another brawl in the semi-final of the women's field hockey competition, after the ball was smashed at a Belgian player by one of the Chinese players after the final whistle, leaving her holding her body on the floor in pain.

Following on the from semi-final in the women's competition, the men's gold medal match took place at Paris' Stade Yves-du-Manoir between Germany and the Netherlands.

With the closely fought match ending 1-1 after regulation time, the gold medal was decided via a penalty shoot out.

Starting off terribly for both sides, with the first two penalties missed for both the Dutch and Germans, it was the Netherlands men who took advantage after Germany missed a third in a row. They seized their chance and won gold.

But the winning penalty goal left a sour taste in the mouth of viewers as well as causing a brawl between both teams after Dutch player Duco Telgenkamp teased German goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg.

After firing home to win gold, Telgenkamp's first act was to go up towards Danneberg - who was on his knees in despair - and shush him.

German players were furious and had to be restrained by Telgenkamp's teammates from getting to the young Dutchman.

Over on X, one viewer wrote: "Very, very bad unsportmanship by the Dutch players. This is completely not in the Olympic spirit.

"If you win you can't tease the losing team. Very bad behaviour by the Dutch players."

A second posted: "I'm happy the Dutch won, but this is extremely poor sportsmanship. You don't mock the team you just beat."

Over on Reddit, another said: "Could have won with dignity but just had to be a sore winner."

Others were less sympathetic to the Germans. One said: "Goalie should have kept his mouth shut before the game.

"You reap what you sow, specially in a final between the Netherlands and the Germans."

Another wrote: "It's never okay he did that. But the reason he did it is because the German goalkeeper said yesterday that the Dutch team was afraid of them."

And a third said: "That German keeper said sometime before the match that the Dutch team was afraid of the German team.

"And the Dutch team used that in their WhatsApp group to hype themselves."

A very very bad unsportmanshipby the Dutch players
This is completely not in the Olympic spirit.
If you win you can't tease the losing team
Very bad behaviour by the Dutch players
They won the gold medal 🥇 by beating Germany in shoot off#Hockey #Paris2024 #ParisOlympics2024 pic.twitter.com/2p1a9RlcmN

— Brisbane '32' (@namanruhela13) August 8, 2024

Prior to the final, Danneberg had said: "The Dutch players need a very good day to score four goals against us. So I think we have a mountain, and they will have big problems to climb us... the Dutch are really scared."

Germany and the Netherlands have a longstanding rivalry in sport that goes back to 1910, when the two national football teams faced each other for the first time.

The flame was truly lit during the 1974 World Cup when the Dutch lost to West Germany in the final, which inflamed historic tensions relating to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War.