Women athletes and their journeys of grit

The first went to Saikhom Mirabai Chanu who set a new Olympic record with a successful 115 kg lift in clean and jerk. The second went to Lovlina Borgohain who, in her first Olympics, is now the third Indian boxer to ensure a podium finish, after Vijender Singh in 2008 and Mary Kom in 2012. PV Sindhu hauled in the third to become the first Indian woman to win two individual medals at an Olympics. At the time of writing, golfer Aditi Ashok could well bring home a silver.

And the Indian women’s hockey team made it to the semi-finals for the first time ever. Despite their 1-2 loss to Argentina, they fought hard against Great Britain in the match for the bronze, but unfortunately, lost 3-4.

Silver or bronze don’t matter as much as the distance. Chanu’s mother sold samosas on the street. Borgohain’s father worked at a tea garden. Women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal’s mother was a domestic worker, her father, a cart-puller.

There’s another distance to consider. It’s the 21-year-long one from the 2000 Sydney Olympics when 25-year-old weightlifter Karnam Malleshwari first brought home a bronze. Of the five individual medals won so far this Olympics, women have won three.

Women’s hockey has come a long way from 2010, when charges of sexual harassment against then coach, MK Kaushik, led to the revelation that women players were expected to wash their coach’s clothes.

Now, states such as Odisha have set up the infrastructure to tap into India’s sporting culture for men and women, providing opportunities to scores of athletes and also reaping dividends for India.

Today’s women athletes also have the luxury of an earlier generation of role models: Kunjarani Devi, MC Mary Kom, Anju Bobby George and PT Usha.

Behind the glitter of the medals lies a story of personal grit. Poverty and marginalisation cut across gender, but women face special discrimination that ranges from fighting to be born to being allowed to play a sport. “Women face so many restrictions, from their mobility and the way that they dress to the social pressures that prevent girls from taking up sport, particularly contact sport,” says former national-level volleyball player Kanta Singh, now, country programme manager at United Nations Women.

There is change within families too, says Singh. Cash awards, government jobs and recognition have led more families to encourage their daughters to play.

Perhaps the biggest change can be seen among the women themselves. Sport, says Sharda Ugra who has spent most of her career writing on men’s sport, has given women freedom, power and confidence. It “makes us brave”, Rani Rampal told Ugra.

It also sends a message. “People in my village now think it’s okay to want their daughters admitted into a good college in another place,” goalkeeper Savita Punia told Ugra. “They tell my parents, Savita can go so far away, to other countries, other states, why can’t we send our daughters to another district?” Now, that’s a good distance to cover.