The Olympic Games hockey tournament has 12 teams participating in the men's section and ten in the women's.
How the teams qualify
1. Continental Qualification
The following nations qualified automatically for the men's tournament:
2. Host Nation - Greece
The host nation qualifies for the respective tournaments subject to it being able to provide a men's and women's team of sufficient level.
For the first time in Olympic hockey history the hosts were made to pre-qualify. That is because Greece, which will host the 2004 quadrennial Games, has no lineage in the sport.
Ranked 50th in the world among 69 nations, Greece could have qualified for the Games automatically had they made it among the last 12 of the European Nations Cup in 2003. They did not and thus were forced to play the lowest-ranked team in the Olympic qualifiers, Canada, in a three-match play-off, which they lost 2-0. The result of the play-off left seven places open for qualification from the qualifying tournament against six, had Greece made it.
3. Olympic Qualifying Competitions
To make a total of 12 teams participating in the men's Olympic tournament, as well as to determine the reserve teams.
The countries to take part in the qualifying competitions will automatically include the respective host countries of the respective qualifying competition. The other countries will be selected on the basis of the placings in the respective preceding World Cup, and then, if necessary, on the basis of the placings in the respective preceding World Cup Qualifier - it being understood that those countries already qualified for the Olympic tournaments will not be taken into consideration.
Twelve teams have been divided into two groups based on the FIH rankings as on October 31, 2003.
The top seven teams from the qualifier will join five teams -- South Korea, Australia, Argentina, Germany and Egypt, who already qualified for the Olympics by virtue of emerging champions of their respective continents.
Cuba advised the FIH that it does not wish to exercise its right to compete in the qualifying tournament. As a result, Canada, the first reserve country, accepted an invitation to participate.
France is the first reserve country for the tournament.
The pools for the tournament are based upon the FIH Tournament Regulations for a two-pool competition, namely:
| Pool A | Pool B |
| 1st Ranked | 2nd Ranked |
| 4th Ranked | 3rd Ranked |
| 5th Ranked | 6th Ranked |
| 8th Ranked | 7th Ranked |
| 9th Ranked | 10th Ranked |
| 12th Ranked | 11th Ranked |
Therefore, based upon the official FIH world rankings issued 31 October 2003, the pools will be as follows: