Gold rush: More young women are building their careers around sport

Historically, the Commonwealth Games have been a happy hunting ground for Indian athletes, and the 21st edition, being hosted by the Gold Coast, is proving to be much the same. India has already improved the gold medal haul it achieved at Glasgow, 2014. And with Sunday's results still pending, it wouldn't be imprudent to suggest that India is likely to add more sheen to an already marvellous showing. But while former world champions such as Sushil Kumar and Jitu Rai notched up emphatic — and expected — victories, it has been the women, some of them largely unknown to the general Indian audience till a few weeks ago, who have led the country’s medal surge.

This dominance is perhaps best encapsulated by 16-year-old Manu Bhaker, who won gold in the 10m air pistol by ousting the more seasoned Heena Sidhu, and Manika Batra, the 22-year-old who was at the heart of India’s improbable win against Singapore in the women's team table-tennis final; she later swept her way to gold in the singles, too. It would be unfair to exclude Sidhu herself from this list; she bounced back from that chastening defeat against Bhaker to annihilate the field in the 25m air pistol final. Other notable mentions include Mary Kom, who continues to defy age by vanquishing boxers much younger than her, Shreyasi Singh, who clinched gold in the double trap, and Mirabai Chanu and Sanjita Chanu, the unassuming Manipuri weightlifter duo who dazzled on the opening two days of the Games.

These feats have been made all the more impressive by the fact that India for long was devoid of any world-class female athletes. Until a few years ago, all our Olympic medals came from traditionally male-dominated disciplines such as wrestling and boxing. Now not only are women competing more in such events, but are turning in impeccable performances, too. The past few years are concrete proof. Mary Kom, for instance, finished on the podium at London 2012; no Indian male boxer came even close to winning a medal. Similarly, Sakshi Malik won bronze in Rio de Janeiro two years ago when the Indian men’s wrestling team put in an abject performance. In fact, India's meagre two-medal haul was only made possible by Malik and P V Sindhu, who came up agonisingly short in the women's singles badminton final.

With a burgeoning sporting culture — still nascent by international standards, though — more young women are building their careers around sport. Also, inspiration is now easier to find. Look no further than Sindhu in that respect. At just 22, the shuttler has firmly established herself as a commanding force in world badminton, and looks well on her way to possibly becoming the finest female athlete India has ever seen. What Sindhu is doing for badminton Dipa Karmakar engineered for gymnastics after the Rio Olympics. Moreover, organisations such as Olympic Gold Quest and Go Sports Foundation have ensured that prodigious talents are transformed into worthy champions.

It is, however, crucial to note that the Commonwealth Games are by no stretch of the imagination the gold standard of international sporting competition; the Olympics, for example, operate at an altogether different level of performance. The results at the Gold Coast, though, have shown that India has enough to work with. Bhaker and Batra, if nurtured the right way, are capable of reproducing this form at bigger events.

Amid this gold rush, it is also easy to forget the women’s hockey team, which narrowly missed out on making it to the final, losing by just one goal against a much more fancied Australian side. Despite that minor disappointment, these Commonwealth Games have belonged to the Indian ladies, who have excelled across disciplines — a sentiment that is perhaps amplified by the fact that expectations from some of them were low. Hopefully, Tokyo 2020 (Olympics) will be even better.