India’s women’s hockey team, it’s because some of these ladies have defied all odds to get to where they are now in life. Here are five ladies on the ice hockey team whose lives should inspire you on a daily basis.
Lalremsiami: The Mizoram striker, 19, played in the semi-final against Chile the day after her father, Lalthansanga Zote, died of a heart attack on Friday morning. Sjoerd Marijne, the team’s head coach, had suggested that she travel home to attend her father’s burial, but Lalremsiami had other plans. Lalremsiami, on the other hand, could scarcely speak English or Hindi when she first joined the squad. She used hand gestures to communicate with her teammates at first, before learning both languages with the support of her teammates and self-help literature.
Deep Grace Ekka: In action with Deep Grace Ekka. (Image courtesy of Hockey India) Meet the 25-year-old Odisha defender from a small hamlet in the Sundergarh area. Coaches at the Odisha government-run Sundargarh Sports Hostel, one of the state’s three top hockey training centres, discovered her talent when she was 13 years old. Since then, she hasn’t looked back.
Rani Rampal: The Indian captain has gone a long way from training with broken hockey sticks to being the youngest player in the national women’s hockey squad. Rani Rampal’s mother worked as a domestic helper, while her father worked as a cart-puller, earning around Rs 80 per day. She was inspired by the athletes she saw at a neighboring hockey academy and chose to join them. Her father, however, could not afford to purchase her a hockey stick, so she had to practice with one that was broken.
Gurjit Kaur: Drag flicker Gurjit Kaur was born in Miadi Kalan, Amritsar, to a farmer’s family. She and her sister spent most of their lives in her village, where she had no idea what hockey was, let alone how to play it. Gurjit rose to the occasion in India’s Olympic quarter-final against World No 4, converting India’s lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute to stun the confident Australians.
Vandana Katariya: As a young girl, Vandana Katariya was constantly admonished that her passion for hockey was “unbecoming of a female.” In Uttarakhand’s Roshnabad hamlet, she would practice her techniques with tree branches in a secret area, far away from the condemning gazes of elders. Vandana’s father died three months before the Tokyo Olympics, and she was unable to return home due to training. Despite her numerous challenges, she became the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick at the Olympics on July 31, 2021.
Source: thebetterindia.com