Prathibhas's Blog

Golden Girls November 1, 2010

Its nearly 2 weeks since the Common Wealth Games is over. The Games had a very shaky beginning with lot of controversies, but then right people got together at the right time to make what was termed as one of the best sporting events hosted by India. What added more glory to these games is the fact that its India’s best performance at the Games finishing at 2nd place after table toppers Australia who were indeed way ahead of everyone else at the games. The performances of our athletes in these games has sent a message to the whole nation and its high time the nation actually realizes that sports in India is not merely Cricket and much more than it. Considering the fact we are living in a country where some people still feel that women can merely do more than being homemakers , the performances of women in particular were truly adorable who won more than one third of India’s medals .Being a girl and being a die hard sports fan, I would like to write a few things about what it takes out of a girl to achieve such heights in sports in a country like India.

Every time, an Indian athlete fails to win a medal at an International event, we just criticize saying our athletes are no good compared to their counterparts. But have we ever realised the kind of infrastructure that our people have. Indian women did really well in wrestling at the Common Wealth Games. But I was shocked to see on TV that Geetha, who won the first ever gold medal in women wrestling for India and her sister Babitha who won a silver are from a very remote village in Haryana and don’t even have bare minimum facilities for what it takes to be a wrestler. They don’t even have proper mats, gym and they use bricks to train. In a village where not many would encourage women to take up something like wrestling, its their father who has stood by them and done more than what he could to take them to where they are now.

Another Golden Girl Renubala Chanu who won a gold for the country in Weight Lifting was left stranded in the Nehru Stadium for about 5 hours after she won the medal and was forced to take an auto to the CWG village. Its really sad the way we have treated these people who have made us so much proud! When she was asked to comment on this, she only told that things like these dont matter to her and she will only focus on winning more medals for the country. Amazing character! This is not the first time something like this has happened to an athlete in India. Last year the sprint queen of India P T Usha and five other athletes were denied accommodation during the national athletic games at Bhopal. This is not the first time something like this has happened in our country. Just that we have hardly done anything about it and just moved on. Every time something like has happened, our sportsmen have only responded by winning more medals.

Kavita Raut, the first ever individual medalist at a track event who won a bronze in 10,000 meters is born in a very poor family in Maharashtra who had no choice but to take up athletics. She doesn’t even have enough money to spend on shoes and actually practises bare footed! These are people who have set perfect examples for the youth that there is nothing which could stop them from achieving. All these people have overcome all the limitations and they have reached places with their hard work determination!

Its high time we realize the worth of these athletes and respect them. The government should take measures and promote these talents who have made the country so proud! One good news is the fact that the coverage and the media adulation for these sports have improved over the years. In fact its a 30 minute program on CNN-IBN which inspired me to write this post. Hope a day comes soon when we treat all these sports and sportsmen on par with cricket and cricketers. Let us salute these people from ordinary families with extra-ordinary talents! These people come from places which is tough to locate on maps but have made the Indian Flag fly high!

Jai Hind!