Courage of the enduring spirit

Sports is an expression of the soaring soul of humanity that conquers limitations. All obstacles can be overcome; victors are hailed not by nationality but by the sweet sweat of their triumphs. Losers no longer weep alone. P V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Abhinav Bindra, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijender Singh, Mary Kom and  Karnam Malleswari are names synonymous with Indian pride in international sports; movies are made on them, corporates auction their talent (cricketers ruling the stratosphere) and governments rush in with jobs and rewards.

But there is an elephant in the room. Indian sports celebrities are mostly men. Unlike Leander Paes and Virat Kohli, Mary Kom hardly gets signed on for global tournaments. Most of India, even cricket fans, would be at a loss to recognise Mithali Raj, the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team. Women’s cricket, hockey and football draw few sponsors and don’t pack stadiums. Sania Mirza’s short skirts attract more attention than her serves. When Sakshi started wrestling as a kid, the men in her village in Haryana, a state notorious for female foeticide, disapproved of her taking up a sport  not “meant for girls”.

Both in India and abroad, women are paid less than men in sports. Only in 2007 did Wimbledon offer women players the same prize money as men. According to Forbes, the top 25 of the best-paid athletes in the world are men. The 2015 women’s soccer World Cup between the US and Japan was the most-ever watched soccer match played by either men or women in the US; it had 25.4 million viewers. The women’s soccer team earned $15 million in 2015, compared to $358 million by the victorious male team of the FIFA World Cup. The world’s highest paid female athlete Maria Sharapova makes less than half of what Roger Federer rakes in. Women’s sports gets less viewership by TV watchers. Purdue professor Cheryl Cooky is quoted as saying that men’s sports, seen as “more exciting”, have higher production values, higher-quality coverage, and higher-quality commentary. “When you watch women’s sports... there are fewer camera angles, fewer cuts to shot, fewer instant replays.” Less glamorous, in other words. When Indian sportswomen retire, sports channels do not offer them lucrative commentary contracts. After a few years, most of them lapse into obscure domesticity, their medals languishing in dusty cupboards in small towns and villages.

Sports experts attribute the inequality to physiology. Women have less upper body muscle—a difference of up to 30 per cent. A woman golfer needs to draw upon 80 to 90 per cent of her strength to send a ball 200 metres compared to the 60 per cent used by a man. World speed records set by women are only about 90 per cent of men’s in short, middle and long distances. But there is no difference in the strength of their spirit.

India’s sports psyche is changing. All three of our Olympic champions in Rio were women. Karmakar’s performance won her the nation’s applause for enduring all odds—the gymnast trained on castaway karate mats. Sakshi’s bronze had India cheering. Sindhu’s silver moved us to tears of pride. Ultimately, the sporting spirit is not about gender, but a human being’s struggle to challenge and conquer history. In that endeavour, women occupy a height equal to men. Or higher.

Ravi Shankar ravi@newindianexpress.com

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