Legendary Indian tennis player Sania Mirza took pride in the fact that the nation now produces more umber of female athletes than it did, but also added that these sportswomen would have to define how
they represent themselves.
Mirza observed the stark increase in the number of female athletes now as compared to the times when she initially picked up the tennis racquet, but added that they need to stick to their resolve.
“From having the only female superstar that I had from India was PT Usha and that was somebody we just heard of, we never saw because there was no social media, no media or there was no coverage,” she said at ‘The Sports Women’ event by Capri Sports on Wednesday.
“To today, when we go to the Olympics or outside of probably three or four male cricketers, the biggest superstars from this country in sport are female athletes and that says a lot over the last 50 years,” the 38-year-old said.
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Sania urged women in sports to emphasise on playing for themselves and represent their character instead of bending to the will of spectators and onlookers.
“Are we living in a man’s world? The answer is yes. Are we living in a man’s world when it comes to sport? The answer is yes. Are we living in a man’s world or are we living in a cricket’s world when it comes to this country? The answer is yes,” Mirza added.
“As female representation, the onus is also on us how we represent ourselves, how we are actually showing the world,” she asserted.
“We like world beaters in this part of the world, but we don’t want them to act like world beaters. We still want them to act like they are bichare.”
“So if you act like a world beater, they’re like, ‘they have attitude and they’re arrogant’. But if then you are acting like, oh, you’re a bichare (poor), then they say, ‘you’re a good girl’ or whatever. But then they (also) say, ‘oh, you don’t have killer instincts’. So there’s no winning in that,” she added.
“You don’t do anything for other people, you do it for yourself. I don’t actually care how other people represent me, I care how I represent myself,” the former women’s doubles world No 1 added.
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Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu added that paying to much head to the opinions of the general public could break a female athlete and added that while the dynamics have changed a lot for women in sports, a lot of work remains to be done at the grassroots levels.
“You don’t have to actually bother or feel bad about what they (social media) think, but it’s what you think and what matters is how you are feeling at the end of the day,” Sindhu said.
“If you actually think about what others are thinking, that will really take you somewhere you can’t even imagine, because it breaks you and that’s where the mental health (issues) start and you actually go into a circle where you don’t know what’s going on,” she added.
“There’s been a lot of change. Initially there was not much recognition. But I think now there’s a lot more. Apart from that, I feel there needs to be a lot of support from the sponsors,” she said.
“I think that can increase where they actually support from the grassroots levels and that’s very important, not just the elite athletes, but from the grassroots levels,” the 30-year-old said.
“Because when you’re an elite and when you’re doing well, when you’re at the top, everything is going to be fine.”
“To recognise those young athletes from the grassroots levels is very important and to prove them and also make sure that they’re going in the right way and guide them in the right way, that needs to improve a lot more,” the double Olympic medallist added.
