Indian Women’s Hockey team stalwarts speak their mind on India’s change in sporting landscape on Women’s Day

On the eve of Women’s Day Indian women’s Hockey team stalwarts, Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur and Gurjit Kaur shared their thoughts on hockey growing as a sport among young girls. All the players have been exceptional in their fourth-place finish in last year’s Tokyo Olympics. They feel that the performance in Tokyo motivated a lot of youngsters to take up the sport.

Speaking on the special occasion of Women’s Day, Vandana Katariya shared her thoughts on how the achievement in Tokyo is playing a big role in development of the sport. She said, “After the Olympics, it has been fantastic to see over 250 athletes play the game of hockey in Roshnabad (Uttarakhand) and majority of the 250 athletes are girls. It feels great to see the popularity of hockey and everyone in my hometown also tells me the rules of the game.”

Women in India are not always encouraged to take up sports by their parents and even in some societies people have horrible mindsets where female sports are not promoted. But Indian midfielder Navjot Kaur feels that their performance in Tokyo has brought in a change and that has uplifted the game in the country.

“There has certainly been a change in the mindset since the Tokyo Olympics last year. Now, all the parents want their children to play sports. Most of the parents believe that the future of their children will be better if they play sports along with focusing on their studies,” Navjot shared.

India’s star drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur who scored that solitary historic goal against Australia in India’s 1-0 win over Australia believes that women should always believe in themselves to succeed and make it big in sports.

Gurjit said, ““Women have a lot of power and they can do anything. Women should continue to be strong and not give up. Whatever women do, whether it’s playing sports or working in business, they should believe in themselves.”

She also highlighted how support from parents in very important in an athlete’s life. Once their family is behind them then anything is achievable according to her. If one has the support from her family, then anything is achievable. We also need to have a positive approach towards every problem we face in our lives. I know it’s easier said than done, but we need to learn how to keep a positive frame of mind in difficult circumstances,” Gurjit added.

The Indian Eves will take on Germany in the FIH Hockey Pro League at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. The match is scheduled to start from 5 PM IST on the 12th and 13th of March.