8 Inspiring Stories Of Girls From The Indian Hockey Who Created History At Tokyo Olympics

This is the moment where the internet flooded with tweets regarding, Chak De India turned out to be true. This story is about the team, the eight girls who did not give up, no matter their previous failure. They bounced back and performed the way they did which made all 1.3 billion Indians proud to call them their daughter.

Below are the inspiring stories of girls from Indian Hockey team who defeated all odds to shine like stars:

1. Rani Rampal

Rani used to practice hockey with broken hockey sticks, and today she is the youngest player in the national women’s hockey team representing India.

Rani belonged to a very humbled and not financially flourished family. Her mother worked as a house help and her father pulled carts earning not more than Rs 100 per day. She used to watch players from faraway and got inspired by them. Her father obviously couldn’t afford a hockey stick for her, so she started playing and practicing with a broken stick.

During an interview with The Better India she said,

“I grew up in a place where young women and girls were restricted to the four walls of their home. So, when I expressed my wish to play hockey, neither my parents nor my relatives supported me. My parents come from a humble background and weren’t very educated. They did not think sports could be a career path, not for girls at least. Besides, my relatives would often tell my father, ‘What will she do playing hockey? She will run around the field wearing a short skirt and bring a bad name to your family’.”

The entire scenario has now changed. Since people are proud of her, she gets congratulated, patted on her back when she is home. She literally showed how motivation and the right space of mind could do anything.

2. Lalremsiami

Lalremsiami got out of her teens and started off with hockey making a huge mark in her career already. She is from Mizoram.

“Selection in India’s Olympic team was my late father’s dream,” said 21-year-old Lalremsiami. She also created history after being the first Indian woman to be handed the FIH rising star award.

Though her father did struggle to support his family, his support for her and her sport never faded. He always dreamt to see her getting selected for the Olympics. She did that, she made her father’s dream into a reality which she is living right now.

Lalremsiami joined the team, she could barely speak English or Hindi. She had to communicate with her teammates using gestures and movements. Slowly she started learning how to communicate by primary books and teammates help.

3. Deep Grace Ekka

Deep Grace Ekka hails from the Lulkidhi village from the Sundargarh district of Odisha.
For her, it was a bit in genes itself. Her father, uncle, elder brothers were all hockey players. But society did not accept it when she decided to continue the family legacy. When she picked the stick her family was shamed by the people as she is a girl and she shouldn’t be playing sports like this. During an interview Deep said,

“When I played they would say, she doesn’t even work and still ladko wala game khelti hai (plays men’s sport). But I did not pay any heed to them and continued to play.”

When she was just 16, Deep played her first senior nationals in Sonepat. She was given the opportunity to join the India junior team. In 2014 he won the bronze medal in the Asian Games.

4. Sushila Chanu

Sushila is apparently the most experienced member of the team. She is from Imphal, Manipur.

Sushila is the daughter of a driver and a homemaker. She began to play hockey when she was just 11. Her uncle was her backbone, he was one the ones to motivate her and get her admitted to the Posterior Hockey Academy in Manipur back in 2002.

When she didn’t get selected for the states, she almost lost her hopes and gave up.
“I didn’t think it would go too far, so I almost quit. But senior players urged me to get back,” she told Hindustan Times. And now she’s reaching heights, she’s representing her country.

Sushila is a very soft-spoken and kind-hearted lady. She has worked as a ticket collector in the Indian railways, since 2010, The job she got from her sports quota.

5. Vandana Katariya

Vandana loved hockey since a kid. But she was often told that hockey would make her not a girl.

Since she didn’t have any support, she started practising with fallen tree branches in a hidden spot. So that she wasn’t stopped by the people of Uttarakhand who always used to get disappointed by her tactics of playing hockey.

Vandana’s father was a wrestler. When everyone was against her and her love for hockey the only support she got, needed was from her father. Sadly her father passed away three months before Olympics. She couldn’t make it home because of her practice. And now Vandana has undoubtedly made her dad proud by being the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick at the Olympics.

6. Gurjit Kaur

Gurjit was born in a farmer family, in Amritsar. She was brought up with her sister in a village and she never knew about hockey. Gurjit got to know about hockey when she moved to board school 70kms away from her house. She saw other girls playing, and she used to observe them playing. Started trying it out by herself, it turned out to be her obsession and she took the sport seriously.

In the Olympics quarter-final against World No 4, it was Gurjit who rose to the occasion and converted India’s lone penalty corner in the 22nd minute to surprise the confident Australians.
“Years of hard work have paid off,” a beaming Gurjit told the media after the match.

7. Savita Punia

As a kid, Savita used to travel 30 km six times every week from her village to their school. Because that was the only pace with proper hockey trainers and infrastructure for her to brush up her skills.

No one in Savita’s family took up sports as a career for themselves. Eventually, they were of course all shocked to see her excelling in an offbeat sport. With the support of her grandfather, she continued to get more and more motivated. Even when times were tough, Savita started losing hope, her grandfather always had her back.

8. Salima Tete

Salima is from Badkichapar village in Jharkhand’s Simdega. That district is said to be one of the most Naxal-affected districts.

Salima started off with her hockey moves in that village with broken sticks. Since her family was unable to afford proper equipment to support her sports dream. 19-year-old Salima told during an interview with LiveMint,

“Everyone in our village plays hockey, even though we have no facilities. Hockey gives us a purpose. But I’m the first player from my village to represent India at an international level.”

Well, it is very clear these girls did face some kind of criticism for being a girl and playing hockey. But today the tables have turned where they are representing their country making all the whole country porous by their amazing skills. Not only that, they did end up making some records already.