A medal from Mary will help many

Mary Kom has risen against all odds to succeed.

As Mary prepares to step into the ring for her quarter-final match in the London Olympics today, it is time we look at the effects a win and a guaranteed medal will bring to her fellow sportswomen back home in India.

Mary Kom‘s rise in boxing and her confirmed status as a legend in the game will be more than enough to inspire all other women in the country, be it boxing or any other discipline. The five consecutive World championship titles she won earlier will take care of that.

A medal from the Olympics is not needed anymore for that to happen.

What it is needed for, however, is to change the mindset of the sports administrators who have long controlled, suppressed and often destroyed the growth of young budding women athletes in the country.

A case in point is Santhi Soundarajan, who won a silver medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Abandoned by the Indian Athletics Federation after failing a gender test, she was forced to work at a brick kiln for daily wages.

This in marked contrast to how the South African Federation rallied to support Castor Semenya, who also failed a similar test and who is now back to running and is also South Africa’s flag bearer in the on-going London Olympics.

Semenya also got to keep all her medals and prize money. Santhi on the other hand, lost her silver medal, all the Government cash awards and ended up working in a brick kiln.

Mary Kom herself has been a victim of this pathetic attitude of sports administrators in the country.

Her coach, Charles Atkinson, was refused accreditation to stay at the Olympics village. Despite being the only female boxer in the contingent, she was asked to train with the national coach, Anoop Kumar, which she had not done so in over a year. Officials also gave the ridiculous reason that Kumar’s years of ‘service’ to boxing meant he couldn’t be refused accreditation. She thus trained instead at Liverpool, hometown of Atkinson, before travelling to London for her matches.

Until such attitudes are changed, women athletes in India will continue to suffer.

A medal from Mary will serve to make these administrators think twice. The ultimate proof of women’s potential in sports will be in front of them. And as women athletes increase in number, they will be forced to give in.

Only then, will our true sporting potential be realized.