The rise of female athletes in India is a growing sign of women’s empowerment, with a significant change in gender bias and unequal opportunities due to gender and financial stability. One of the important role models of female athletes in sports is predominantly in the year 1942 by Mary D’Souza Sequeria, who was the first Indian female player to represent India in the Olympics for the hundred-meter sprint at the Paris Games, which in turn created awareness for considering and taking a step towards societal change on gender bias and equal rights for women.
Below are the achievements of female athletes in India:
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P.T. Usha
She was nicknamed the “Payyoli Express” and established herself as one of India’s greatest athletes from 1984 to 2000. At the 1986 Asian Games, P.T.Usha dominated her events by winning five gold medals and a bronze medal. Her closest brush with Olympic glory was in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, where she missed out on a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles by 0.01 seconds. Over her celebrated sixteen-year career representing India, Usha’s tremendous success at Asian meets and valiant Olympic effort portrayed her iconic status as India’s gold-standard track and field player.
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Karnam Malleshwari
Karnam Malleswari broke new ground for Indian women’s sports globally by competing in the sixty-nine kg category. Malleswari clinched a bronze medal in weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics in the year 2000, and this historic achievement made her the first Indian woman ever to win an Olympic medal, making it a landmark moment that paved the way for greater representation and success of female athletes from India. Over her career, spanning several international competitions from 1992 to 2004, she proved herself a pioneering force in raising the profile of women’s weightlifting sports presence in India through her medal-winning performances on a global stage.
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Mary Kom
She was nicknamed “Magnificent Mary” and has achieved surprising success in boxing as a female athlete from India. She dominated her sports talent from 2000 onward and till the present, winning six unmatched world championship medals across multiple weight categories. Mary Kom also earned a medal at the first seven World Championships, proving her status as the most decorated boxer in the history of boxing. Her excellence paved the way for the Olympics, where she captured the bronze medal at the London Games in 2012 by adding an Olympic medal to her long list of accomplishments. Through her remarkable two-decade career that is defined by record-setting achievements, she has inspired countless Indians, particularly women, by being one of the finest boxers in the world, both male and female.
Apart from these three role models, other players encouraged women’s inclusion in sports, like Saina Nehwal, Deepika Kumari, Sania Mirza, Mithali Raj, Anjali Bhagwat, Dutee Chand, and Hima Das being the inspiration and a change to the developing country. Every sport has a female player who broke the records and stood first to represent Indian Women, showing the guts and power of women in this changing society and motivating women to break free from social norms and fight against injustice without any fear. The rise of women players in sports includes various factors like government support, societal change towards women, and challenges that still pertain in the present era, such as lack of infrastructure, gender bias, and unequal pay, which is a stoppage for women’s growth in any industry which becomes a blockage in women’s development in any sector.
