Female Celebrities of Indian Sports
Women Catching up Fast
The first women contingent from India that took part in Olympics was in 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Before that Indian Athletes participated in 1st Asian Games at New Delhi in 1951. They won 2 Silver and 5 Bronze Medals altogether. After that Kamaljit Sandhu won 1 st Gold Medal in 1970 inJakarta Asian Games. Karnam Malleswari is till now the only Indian Sportwoman to win a Medal in Olympics in 2000, Sydney.. But over a period of times Indian Females are have been making their mark in various discipline of Sports and have brought glory to our in various International Sports Meet including Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and also Olympics. these achievements are remarkable considering the constarints female sportspersons have to overcome throughout their grooming period. It is to be noted that women are comparatively becoming more successful than their men counterpart.
P. T. Usha- The Payyoli Express
P. T. Usha till now the greatest of Indian women athletes was nicknamed as the Queen of Indian Track and Field. In the Field of Athletics, she can only be compared with the All time Greatest Indian Athlete Flying Sikh Milkha Singh. Born in 1964 in Payoli village of Kozhikode District Kerala, India, she participated in Moscow Olympics in 1980. She again participated in Los Angels Olympics in 400m Hurdles and became 4th and missed the Bronze Medal by 1/100th sec.locking 55.42 sec. She won mant medals. In her long career spanning over 20 years, she won numerous Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals in various International Athletics and Sports Meet. The most remarkable of which are winning 5 Gold and 1 Bronze Medals in Asian Track and Field Meet in Jakarta, Indonesia and 4 Gold and 1 Silver Medal in Seoul Asian Games in 1986. Now she is running her own Athletic Academy in her home state Kerala which is already pruducing some very talented Athletes.
The Indian Queen of Track and Field
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeMagnificient Mary- The Icon of Indian Female Sports
We can name many many Indian Female sportspersons with remarkable achievements in their field. They are Anju Bobby George in Athletics( Long Jump), Dola Banerjee and Dipika Kumari in Archery, Saina Nehwal in Badminton, Sania Mirza in Tennis, Jhulan Goswami in Cricket. But in terms of achievement none can come near Mary Kom, The Indian Female Boxer who won consecutive Gold Medals in 5 World Championship. She has been named Magnificient Mary by World Boxing Community. She can only be compared with Sachin Tendulkar and Viswanathan Anand if we go through her dedication, willpower and skill to achieve success and holding the Indian Flag high all over the world.
The small package from India, born in 1983 at a small village in remote North East state of Manipur in India, switched to Boxing from Athletics at the age of 17, inspired by the achievement of Dingko Singh who won Gold in Boxing from Bangkok Aisan Games held in 2000.
She improved so ramarkably that right from 2002 she became champion in World Women Boxing Championship 5 successive times..4 times in 46 Kg category and 5 the time in 48 kg category. The achievement is far more remarkable in the sense that she won her last World Women Boxing Championship as a mother of 2!!! We are pinning hopes on her about her chancing of winning a medal for India in ensuing London Olympics in 2012. Though it may be bit difficult for her this time because she will be comparatively older and have to fight in 51 Kg category. But as for the first time Women Boxing is being held in Olympics, she is preparing hard for it. We believe that her willpower will drive Magnificient Mary to success again!!
The Magnificient Mary - Ready To Punch
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeSaina and Sania - coming from the same city
If we discuss about these 2 Indian Sports Divas many many words can be written about them. They are now 2 most popular Indian Sports Divas. As far as Sania is concerned, she carried Indian Women Tennis to the World. She can be rightly treated as Glamour Queen of Indian Sports. She still remains so. Once coming within the 1st 30 of world Ranking of Women Tennis, she slipped behind now, due to injury and loss of form to some extent. Nowadya she is improving again and excelling in doubles and mixed doubles.
As far as Saina is concerned, whatever glamour she has earned it is through hard practice and developing skills. Coached by another former World Champion, P Gopichand Saina Nehwal climbed up to no 2 spot in World Ranking, she has now dropped to no 4 spot, because of her absence for a while due to injury. She has won many world Super Series Badminton Championship, which are equivalent to Grand Slam in Tennis. She is also our another Medal Hope in London Olympics of 2012.