Ranchi (Jharkhand), Jan 13 – AS she turns out for the Germany women’s hockey team at the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi, Selin Oruz nurtures a dream — becoming a doctor with an Olympic gold medal around her neck.
Ric Charlesworth of Australia is one of the few doctors to win the Olympics and World Cup medals in hockey. But he did not win a gold medal at the Olympics. Selin is hoping that one day she will have an Olympic gold medal along with the bronze she won in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro around her neck besides a stethoscope when she becomes a full-time doctor.
As she chases the dream of winning an Olympic gold medal, Dr. Selin Oruz, who has played 156 matches for Germany so far and scored four goals, sees a lot of similarities in medicine and hockey.
On a break from working in the ENT department of a practice in Krefeld, Germany, Selin scored the opening goal for Germany in the Women’s FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi as the World No.5 defeated Chile 3-0 in the opening match of the event at the Marang Gomke Astro Turf Hockey Stadium on Saturday.
When it comes to medicine, Selin is following in the footsteps of her parents, both of whom are doctors while in the case of hockey, she is hoping to follow her brother, Timur Oruz, who won part of the German team that won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2023 World Cup in Rourkela in January last year.
Though Selin says it is tough to balance medicine and hockey, she is enjoying the dual roles as of now and wants to give herself time till the end of the year to pursue her Olympic dream before becoming a full-time doctor.
so, how is she balancing both fields?
“Yeah, that’s a difficult question because, in the end, I think it’s a lot of discipline to combine and medicine. But in the end, I think you can combine them because they are so similar in many ways. Like, you have to be 100% in it, like you have to give your best and everything. And I always love to play hockey, to reduce a bit from the stress and the, yeah, the things to study in the medicine study,” said Selin, who wants to specialise in paediatrics and is in the first year of her specialisation studies.
“So now I work in a practice, so it’s much easier in clinic, So I don’t have work on the weekend and so on. So at the moment, until the Olympics, I’m going to focus on hockey, but in the end, I love to come back from hockey training and work as a doctor, so I think this combination is the best,” said the 26-year-old Selin, whose mother is a paediatrician and father is an ENT specialist.
Selin, who as a child loved to play the violin and piano, has completed seven years of medical study, equivalent to our MBBS degree, and worked one year in a hospital.
“At the moment in Germany, you have like 7 years of studying and one year in the hospital and then you specialise 5 to 6 years and I want to be a kids doctor like my mother, who is my idol,” said Selin after Saturday’s match.
An affable personality otherwise too, the 26-year-old defender said being a sportsperson helps her in interacting with the child patients.
“Because I’m a sports person, they have some affinity to me. Also, I think there’s an intuition (of the sportsperson). I love to interact with people and I think not every Doctor is the best in interaction and maybe a bit more Concerned,” she added.
Selin said her parents encouraged her to do multiple things to develop into a well-rounded personality.
“I had the best childhood like my parents are my idols and I love them so much. So they try to present us everything or give us the chance to try out everything,” said Selin who stopped playing violin and piano when she started doing well in hockey.
“When sports and hockey became more professional, I stopped training in music. Because, yeah, I couldn’t do things. Like two is also a lot but three things, I could not *pursue),” said the German star.
Selin says pursuing hockey will cause a delay in fulfilling her ambition of becoming a doctor because she has to take regular breaks from studies for major events, but she does not want to leave one for another.
“Yes, I started because I also need one year longer for my study because I wrote my thesis like my doctor’s thesis,” she is now hoping to complete the remaining four years of her specialisation and become a Doctor.
Already an Olympian Dcotor Selin will continue to live the fine balance between sports and studies till the end of the Olympics, to try and win a gold medal, and then take a call on turning into a full-time doctor.
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