8 Indian Women Hockey Players who made History that will inspire you

In 2021, the Indian Women’s Hockey team made history with their outstanding effort at the Tokyo Olympics, eliminating one of the world’s fiercest hockey teams, Australia. Their phenomenal efforts have allowed India to advance to the Olympic semi-finals. Well, do you know the name of the history makers? Rani Rampal, Vandana Katariya, Salima Tete, Deep Grace Ekka, Savita Punia, Gurjit Kaur, Lalremsiami, and Sushila Chanu are the icons behind the glorious victory. They are the real-life characters of the Bollywood movie ‘Chak de India’.

Let us honor these remarkable women of the Indian Women’s Hockey Team by knowing about them and their mysterious success stories!

Rani Rampal

The captain of the Indian Hockey Team has gone a long way from practicing with broken hockey sticks to being the youngest player on the national women’s hockey team. Rani’s mother labored as a maid and her father as a cart puller. Her parents struggled to make ends meet. Rani Rampal was motivated by hockey players, but she wasn’t even able to purchase a hockey stick. Rampal remained in her efforts despite her family’s ongoing rejection and criticism. She practiced using broken hockey sticks and ultimately rose to become India’s youngest player on the national women’s hockey team.

Deep Grace Ekka

Deep Grace Ekka comes from a remote village in Odisha. Deep hails from a hockey family; her father, uncle, and brother have all played at the local level. Despite her family’s love of sports, Ekha was strongly denigrated by her neighbors and close associates when she showed a desire to play hockey. Girls aren’t supposed to play hockey, they said. She’d hear statements like, “ladko wala game khelti hai (plays men’s sport)”. She did not, however, let this deter her desire to play, and at the age of 16, she competed in her first senior nationals in Sonepat. She was soon granted an appearance on the India Junior squad. In 2014, she enabled India to achieve bronze medals at both the Junior World Cup and the Asian Games.

Sushila Chanu

Manipur native Chanu plays halfback for the team. She began playing hockey when she was 11 years old and was quickly picked for the National Camp. Sushila Chanu has also worked as a Central Railways ticket collector since 2010. When she wasn’t picked for the state hockey championship, she thought about walking away from the sport; but her senior players pushed her to come back.

In the year 2013, Chanu influenced the junior women’s hockey team to a bronze medal come in the Women’s Hockey Junior World Cup in Monchengladbach. She then made her senior national team debut, claiming a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. She had the additional responsibility of coaching the team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Vandana Kataria

Vandana Kataria is from Uttarakhand, and her journey to the Olympics has been riddled with obstacles and challenges. When she was a little young, she was informed that her passion and excitement for hockey was “unbecoming of a girl.” So she would practice away from the public glare. Vandana gained encouragement from her wrestling father, Nahar Singh Kataria. However, Vandana’s father died barely three months before the Tokyo Olympics, and due to her training, she was unable to return to the house to pay her condolences. Katariya has certainly fulfilled her father’s wishes by reaching the Olympics 2020 semi-finals and being the first Indian woman to score a hat-trick.

Gurjit Kaur

Gurjit Kaur, the team’s defender, and drag-flicker, is from Punjab and joins an extensive group of hockey players from her home state. She has been appointed to the North Central Railway Zone in Allahabad as a clerk.

Gurji Kaur is from an agricultural background in Amritsar. Gurji was first introduced to the sport in boarding school and understood nothing about it, so she would spend much of her time observing other girls play.

Initially, she had been instructed in hockey by international player Pushpa Srivastava. The Amritsari girl began her tournament debut with a solitary goal against Singapore, but she improved as the competition went on. She continued to score goals against China and Japan, but she was at her sharpest against Kazakhstan, scoring a hat-trick on penalty corners. With eight goals, she ended up being the tournament’s third-highest goal scorer.

Savita Punia

This Haryanvi lil girl was inspired to play field hockey by her grandfather Late Ranjeet Singh Punia. She was coached by Sunder Singh Kharab during her early years at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) center in Hisar. She first represented India at the age of 17 and qualified for the National Team in 2007. She was an integral part of the Indian Hockey Team for the Junior Asia Cup in 2009. She has played for her country in over 100 international tournaments and has 121 international medals to her name. Savita received a prize of Rs 1 lakh in 2015 for her self-sacrificing commitment to the team, which led the Indian Women’s Team to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

At the 2015 Hockey India Annual Awards, she bagged the Baljit Singh Keeper of the Year Award. She played the role of the Indian team’s Vice-Captain and goalkeeper during the ninth Asia Cup in 2017. She ensured that India scored only five goals in their six matches in the tournament. Savita obtained the tournament’s Keeper of the Tournament award for her outstanding contribution.

Lalremsiami

She was the first Indian woman to be awarded the FIH Rising Star Award. Lalremsiami’s father was her greatest supporter, continually motivating her to go after whatever she wanted. She mentioned in an interview, “Selection in India’s Olympic team was my late father’s dream.” When she first joined the squad, she failed to speak in English or Hindi and had to depend on hand gestures to interact with her teammates.

Salima Tete

On the dusty fields of this village, the courageous girl from Jharkhand began to practice hockey. Her father was a farmer, and the family couldn’t afford adequate hockey equipment, so she played with wooden sticks. However, hockey was a sport that everyone in her area was enthusiastic about. “Everyone in our village plays hockey, even though we don’t have any facilities,” she said in an interview. Hockey serves us a sense of direction. “However, I am the first player from my village to represent India at the international level.”

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