Women & Sports

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The history of sports in India, women have had to battle society's strict conventions to participate in competitive sports. The Victorian attitudes of the nineteenth century created an atmosphere that discouraged women from participating in the "masculine" world of sports. For more than a century, women had limited or no access to facilities, training, and coaching. The opportunities available to sportswomen in the 1990s and into the twenty-first century were created by female athletes whose competitive spirit and athletic skill forced changes that opened doors for future generations. Those women who achieved success despite the odds shaped women's history, and sports' history in India.

The launch of this reference work, perceptions of a variety of complications beset the editorial team. First, the hope that the work would be widely read became palpable. This realization quickly gave rise to yet another consideration that such use will diminish the work's comprehensibility in its conceived wholeness. The preface material is intended to supply a framework so that these considerations will be obviated.

This book attempts to address this subject in a single volume, we cannot do full justice to the topic. To each and every person whose story we have failed to tell, we offer regrets. It is our belief and hope that this book will spawn a hundred other such projects.

Jyoti Thakur has obtained her Master in Physical education in 1992. She is a product of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. She had a brilliant academic career, winning honours and awards in India and abroad. She is the author of numerous sports and physical education papers published in reputed India and Foreign periodicals. She has also participated in various national and International conferences.

More women than ever before will have the chance to reach their potential as athletes. The road for full and complete acceptance of women in the sports world, however, has been a long and arduous one. Sports in India emerged in the nineteenth century as a strictly male domain. Women were discouraged from participating in anything more than recreational activities because of myths about women being the weaker sex, unable physically and emotionally to handle the pressures and strains of competition. But beginning in the latter part of the previous century, women began to challenge these myths, proving that they belonged in sports and that they could benefit from full participation. Legislation that helped provide opportunities for thousands of young female athletes to reach their potential on sports fields around the country.

Early in the twentieth century, sports pioneers like Eleonora Sears, Helen Wills Moody, and Gertrude Ederle, PT USHA, Sania Mirza challenged the sexist barriers and broke down many of the restrictive notions about women's physical abilities. These women opened doors for future generations of female athletes-athletes such as.

This book influenced Sports in India provides under one cover, a resource combining history, biography, bibliography, and statistics about women's sporting experiences in India. The female "athlete" emerged in the "twentieth century and brought with her dress reform and an interest in fitness as an empowering force. Women who participated in sports early in the twentieth century, such as Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, Glenna Collett Vare, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, generally did so outside the strict confines of proper behavior set by society, despite all the restrictions, these women garnered near-hero status because of their exceptional talents and endearing personalities. During these years, college women were introduced to sports as part of their educational programs, but competitive sports were frowned upon and discouraged by the nation's physical educators for nearly a quarter of a century more Professional opportunities for women in sports didn't come until after World War II, more recently, a revolution in sports, spurred by the women's movement, education legislation and television, opened the doors wider for sportswomen in India.

Each section offers a description of the venue, a comparison of the number of female and male competitors, and a list of new events added for women, which shows the progress of women in the Olympic movement. In this second edition, the data on the number of nations, events, and athletes in the respective Olympic Games have been updated to reflect those used by the United States Olympic Committee.

Overcoming the sexist barriers and reaching excellence have made women sports stars of the twentieth century role models for young women striving to succeed not only in sports, but in whatever endeavors they choose.

**Contents and Sample Pages**