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Equality in sport may not exist yet, but women breaking Olympic barriers is certainly inspiring for all women in sport!
There was a time when it was believed that competition would make women less feminine. They may damage their reproductive organs or grow unfeminine muscles, the world said. And we still live in times where the length of a woman’s skirt clouds how well she plays a sport. However, this has never stopped women from breaking barriers in sports or any field for that matter. There was a time when Olympics were meant only for the ‘menfolk’. Women were not allowed to participate in the games.
Despite all this, there have been women throughout history who have constantly raised the bar for the world around them continuing to surprise us with their mind boggling achievements!
The first woman to ever win an Olympics gold medal was Charlottee Cooper who won the singles title in tennis at the 1900 Paris games. And ever since then, there has been no going back with women constantly breaking barriers in the Olympics.
So, here are 6 barriers women have broken in the Olympics:
1. It was in 1928 that athletics and gymnastics for women were included in the Olympics. In 1976; Nadia Comaneci, a Romanian gymnast, was the first woman to score a perfect 10 in the Olympic gymnast competition.
2. In the same year, Raelene Boyle, an Australian athlete became the first woman flag bearer for Australia. Incidentally, she is also the first woman to ever be a flag bearer.
3. It was a moment of elation for all Indians when Karnam Malleswari won her first Olympic medal for weightlifting becoming the first Indian woman to do so. But, it was only in the year 2000 that women were allowed to participate in weightlifting!
4. Looking back, those individual achievements of women definitely inspire the rest of the world. However, 2012 is a year that every women can definitely cheer for in terms of ‘Women in sports’. Women are definitely making a stride towards equality in the sports arena. Women’s boxing is all set to make its entrance at Olympics 2012, a step which will see 36 women boxers participate in this event!
5. Closer home, a woman from a small village in Harayana, Geeta Phagot would be participating in wrestling this year. She happens to be the first woman wrestler from India to qualify for this event.
6. Stereotypes about women apart, there seems to be a clear message that has been sent to the world. From grown up men who make sarcastic remarks about women playing sports to little boys who don’t want to play with their girlfriends, history has been made this time! For the first time in the Olympics there will be a female athlete from every competing country with Saudi Arabia and 2 other Islamic countries, Qatar and Brunei deciding to send women to the London 2012 games this year.
It is true that though so many woman have been continuously striving to chalk a path for the rest to follow, equality in sports is a dream that has not been achieved completely. However, this year when the world sits down to watch the Olympics there will at least be a ray of hope out there for other girls who want to walk or in this case run the same path. And that is enough for me to say that history has been made!
Pic credit: Auntie K (Used under a Creative Commons license)
A marketing graduate from the Indian School Of Business, Nandhitha is passionate about writing. She loves to write about the world around her and also enjoys dabbling with fiction/poetry. read more...
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Rajshri Deshpande, who played the fiery protagonist in Trial by Fire along with Abhay Deol speaks of her journey and her social work.
Rajshri Deshpande as the protagonist in ‘Trial by Fire’, the recent Netflix show has received raving reviews along with the show itself for its sensitive portrayal of the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire tragedy, 1997 and its aftermath.
The limited series is based on the book by the same name written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost both their children in the tragedy. We got an opportunity to interview Rajshri Deshpande who played Neelam Krishnamoorthy, the woman who has been relentlessly crusading in the court for holding the owners responsible for the sheer negligence.
Rajshri Deshpande is more than an actor. She is also a social warrior, the rare celebrity from the film industry who has also gone back to her roots to give to poverty struck farming villages in her native Marathwada, with her NGO Nabhangan Foundation. Of course a chance to speak with her one on one was a must!
“What is a woman’s job, Ramesh? Taking care of parents-in-law, husband, children, home and things at work—all at the same time? She isn’t God or a superhuman."
The arrays of workstations were occupied by people peering into their computer screens. The clicks of keyboard keys were punctuated by the occasional footsteps moving around to brainstorm or collaborate with colleagues in their cubicles. Most employees went about their tasks without looking at the person seated on either side of their workstation. Meenakshi was one of them.
The thirty-one-year-old marketing manager in a leading eCommerce company in India sat straight in her seat, her eyes on the screen, her fingers punching furiously into the keys. She was in a flow and wanted to finish the report while the thoughts and words were coming effortlessly into her mind.
Natu-Natu. The mellifluous ringtone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned at her mobile phone with half a mind to keep it ringing until she noticed the caller’s name on the screen, making her pick up the phone immediately.
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