At the most gender-equal Olympics, women are the ones to watch

Of course there will be medals. And headliners breaking records and setting new standards. Of course there will be stories of winning and, the much more heartbreaking, stories of almost winning.

What do these once-every-four-year Games represent, besides the medals, the ranks and the records? Back in Paris, after 128 years, these will be the most gender-equal Olympics, with 5,250 women competing and an equal number of men. India’s 46 female athletes make up 41% of the selection, a slight drop from Tokyo’s 53 of the 120 (44%).

To understand how far we’ve come, consider this: Women made their first appearance in Paris 1900, with 22 of the 997 athletes—just over 2 percent. Until 1984, the marathon was off-limits to women. And the first time every participating country had at least one female athlete wasn’t until 2012 in London.

Also unprecedented in Paris: a crèche in the Olympic Village where parents can leave their children. And a promise from the French National Olympic and Sports Committee to make hotel rooms available for breastfeeding French athletes. At Tokyo 2021, families, including breastfeeding babies, were banned from accompanying athletes, a decision that was eventually reversed after protests from female athletes, The Washington Post reports.

The Games mean different things to different people. For some, it’s sporting excellence. For others, it’s fair play. Some are looking for a comeback, others for a safe haven for sport, a refuge from troubled times. Everyone talks about the Olympic spirit, an elusive but undeniable essence that brings out the best in people at a time when our planet is plagued by climate change, war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape and violence against women.

“On a divided planet, Paris will offer what sport has always meant. A temporary unification. A fleeting harmony,” writes Rohit Brijnath in The Straits Times.

Until they make history, here are some female athletes who have already become winners thanks to their perseverance.

Antim Panghal, 19, India, Wrestling

Antim was born in Haryana, the state with the worst female sex ratio in India. Her name tells you how her parents greeted the birth of their fourth daughter: Enough. The last. Antim.

“My parents may not have wanted me before I was born, but once I was here, I felt nothing but support and love,” Antim told Rudraneil Sengupta, a journalist and author of Enter the Dangal: Travels through India’s wrestling landscape. That support included selling their home and land in the village of Bhagana and moving to the city of Hisar, where Antim would be closer to training facilities for female wrestlers.

In a state where ghoonghat (the veil for women) is still practiced, Haryana has emerged as an unlikely breeding ground for female wrestling with 26 medals, including eight gold medals in three Olympics, four Asian Games and five Commonwealth Games.

Success has spawned its own stories. The legend of the Phogat sisters only spread after Geeta Phogat won India’s first-ever international gold at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. All-male dangals, or community wrestling competitions, now invite women and girls. Private academies have opened in districts like Hisar and Panipat, where girls like Antim are educated.

It was a sister who first noticed Antim’s athleticism and advised her to choose a sport. There was no turning back. In 2018, she was a national under-15 champion. Now 19, she arrives in Paris with a formidable resume: a two-time under-20 world champion and medals in multiple colors at the Asian Games, Asian Championships and Senior World Wrestling Championships. She is also the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the under-20 world wrestling championships.

In 2022, Antim nearly defeated India’s most talented female wrestler, Vinesh Phogat, during the Commonwealth Games qualifying matches in Birmingham.

Vinesh would win the title, but Antim’s reputation was already sealed.

Manizha Talash, 21, Olympic Refugee Team, breakdance

The Washington Post calls her one of the most compelling—and unlikely—athletes at the Paris Olympics. Afghanistan’s first female breakdancer, 21-year-old Manizha Talash, and her sport will both make their Olympic debuts this summer.

Manizha began to break before the Taliban returned, and even then the idea of ​​a young girl dancing didn’t sit well with conservative Afghan society. But when the Taliban took over after NATO and US troops left in 2021, it was time to go.

Leaving behind her single mother and two younger siblings, Manizha and the crew fled to Pakistan. They lived illegally without papers for a year, and eventually, with the help of a Spanish refugee agency, were granted asylum in Spain.

Her first job was at a hair salon, Vogue reports, but after work she found a gym where she could dance. Then a friend helped her get in touch with the refugee team. And by March of this year, Manizha had won a scholarship, moved to Madrid, and started training.

In Paris, she will compete against 16 other women vying for a medal. Unlike the others, Manizha will not compete under the flag of her country, but as a member of the Refugee Olympic Team, which was created during the 2016 Olympics to honor displaced athletes who can no longer live and train in their home countries.

Priyanka Goswami, 28, India, race walking

That day at school there was a special guest at the morning assembly. He was a gym teacher. Would anyone like to sign up?

One hand that shot up was that of sixth-grader Priyanka Goswami. Her father worked as a bus conductor with the Uttar Pradesh Roadways Department, her mother was a housewife. They knew next to nothing about sports, except that their daughter loved to play and try anything new.

Within a few months, Priyanka was in a sports hostel in Lucknow. She was homesick and found some of the gymnastics moves, especially on the beam, daunting. But she had the courage to return to Meerut and shift her aspirations to track and field.

It has been a long journey from Meerut, where her family lives, to Paris. When I speak to her on the phone, she is in Poland at a training camp, along with the rest of the athletics team.

How did she end up in race walking, a discipline of athletics that involves running long distances and where the rules are that you must keep one foot in contact with the ground at all times?

She laughs as she remembers how at a district competition there were only three girls who had signed up for this event. So there was a good chance she would win. Clever thinking. She went home with a bronze medal.

In her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Priyanka finished 17th in the 20km. “Even finishing in the top 20 is really tough,” says Deepthi Bopaiah, CEO of the GoSports Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2008 that has trained and supported 13 athletes, including five women, on their way to Paris this year.

Priyanka has two events lined up: the 20km and a mixed men’s and women’s team event. She is not shy about embracing her ambition of ‘making history’ with a medal. “Naam aur shaan (name and fame),” she says.

Deepthi adds: “She is a real role model, this small-town girl who dreams big and has carved her own path.”

Nikki Hiltz, 29, USA, Middle distance running

“This is bigger than just me,” Nikki, who identifies as transgender and nonbinary, said after they earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. The 29-year-old was assigned female at birth. On June 30, the last day of Pride Month, they qualified for the 1,500m at the Olympic trials with a time of 3:55:33. “I wanted to do this for my community,” they later said. “All the LGBTQ people, you carried me home that last 100 meters.”

The inclusion of transgender athletes has been a controversial issue for several years. Despite criticism for being “transphobic,” nine-time Wimbledon champion and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights Martina Navratilova has remained vocal in her claim that people born male should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

In 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) first opened the Games to transgender athletes, but with conditions including hormone therapy. The issue remains unresolved. On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights began its hearing on whether 33-year-old South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya would have to lower her testosterone levels to compete professionally. In 2021, the IOC updated its policy to allow each governing body of individual sports to formulate its own policies for participation.

Nikki is avoiding controversy, but her presence in Paris will serve as another reminder that the issue is far from resolved.

The following article is an excerpt from this week’s HT Mind the Gap. Subscribe here.