It’s been just over a week now since Tamil Nadu quarter-miler Revathi Veeramani found out that she will be heading to the Tokyo Olympics as part of the mixed 4x400m relay team, but the 23-year-old can still scarcely believe it.
For a girl who lost both her parents to illness at the age of 7 and had to spend all her adolescent life away in a hostel because her grandmother couldn’t take care of her, the fact that she is now an Olympic-bound athlete seems too good to be true. Nothing has been plain sailing, after all, in Revathi’s tumultuous journey.
Belonging to a village called Sakkimangalam in Madurai district, her initiation to athletics came by chance at the age of 15 when her running talent was spotted by a teacher in a government school before it was further honed by Madurai-based coach K Kannan. Until her coach decided to help out, she did not even have shoes and used to run barefoot.
For most of the 100-plus athletes who are heading to Tokyo, this is the reality that they come from. Everyday life is a constant struggle, and it is sport that manages to help them claw their way out of trouble and build a better life for themselves. Revathi is on that path, having got a job as a ticket examiner with Southern Railway in Madurai last year due to her exploits on the track and is now earning a steady monthly income of Rs 25,000.
“I don't think I would have been getting that much money even if I had studied properly and got a job. Athletics has definitely changed my life and made things better. I am getting the right support now due to sports only. There are sponsors who have got in touch and are willing to help me with things like shoes and kit,” Revathi tells this daily.
The Olympics, of course, is the grandest stage for an athlete, and quite a few harbour a strong desire to make the cut right from their childhood. But there are also those who are practical about the circumstances they have been subjected to and are simply looking for a government job through the sports quota to ease their difficulties.
S Dhanalakshmi, who has emerged as one of the top sprinters in the country in recent months, will also be part of the mixed relay team in Tokyo. While her focus now is on doing well at the Games, landing a job soon is as much of a priority for the girl from Trichy. She lost her father early and has had to see her ageing mother continue working on the farms to run the family.
“She applied at Income Tax and Railways last year, but she did not get the appointment due to the Covid situation last year. She has recently again applied for Railways. It will be a big boost for her if she can get the job. Her mother has had to see a lot of struggle to bring up their two daughters,” Dhanalakshmi’s coach reveals.
Despite the unimaginable hardships, the fact that they manage to compete at the highest level is a testament to their determination and hard work. Perhaps, the dire circumstances drive athletes from the rural hinterland to find a way out of their struggle far more than those in comfortable surroundings in metropolitan cities.
Nineteen-year-old shooter Saurabh Chaudhury, for instance, grew up in an environment that wasn’t friendly to honing his skills in the sport. When he began training six years ago, his father, who works in the agricultural fields of Kalina village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, did not have any money to buy his son a pistol. The youngster had to make do with using other people’s equipment before the family eventually took the burden of a loan to fulfil Saurabh’s need.
“Obviously, the financial condition was not very good. When he first started, we did not have enough money to buy him a pistol. After a year of training, his coach insisted that he will need to buy his own pistol as everybody’s grip is different. We had to take a loan to buy him a pistol. Those were very difficult days,” recalls Nitin, Saurabh’s elder brother.
All those struggles seem worth it now, given that Saurabh stands a genuine chance of winning a medal in Tokyo. The 19-year-old has simply not looked back since becoming the youngest Indian shooter to win gold at the Asian Games. He did so at the age of just 16 in Palembang in 2018.
“The situation is stable now. We are doing much better as a family because of Saurabh. Definitely, we have a lot to thank shooting for. The state government also offered Saurabh a job after he won gold at the Asian Games. Once he completes his education, he can take that up,” he informs.
Even for athletes belonging to middle-class families from the big cities, there are challenges along the way. When Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to ever qualify for the Olympics, she revealed how her mother had to pawn jewellery at one stage to help Bhavani continue pursuing what is an expensive sport.
Financial hassles aside, some athletes also face the ordeal of growing up in an abusive environment at home, as was the case with women’s hockey midfielder Neha Goyal due to her alcoholic father in the small town of Sonepat in Haryana. Hockey in Neha’s case was a welcome distraction.
When the Olympics kicks into action, of course, it will all boil down to the medal tally and how successful India’s athletes eventually are. They will be feted if they triumph and disparaged in case of defeat. While that is the nature of competitive sport, it’s worth remembering that the journey to the Olympics is a huge victory in itself for many of India’s sportspersons.