Sports Journalism
Sports have always unintentionally been part of our lives, whether it was games like hide and seek with apartment friends or or scheduled activities such as badminton and swimming classes. It had a way to bring two teams closer and create new distances among loved ones. As we grew older, our involvement in sports evolved from playing simple games to passionately supporting teams and players, even to the point of prioritising sports over exams. Join us on this journey as we transition from childhood games to avidly following the IPL, or pondering over why our country doesn't participate in certain sports to make them more accessible to us. Come experience this last over with us.
The Ban of Transgender Women from Female Athletic Events
-Shaista
In recent years, the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports has sparked heated disputes around the world, particularly regarding their participation in events according to their gender identity. The subject of transgender women partaking in female sports competitions has stirred debate, with concerns raised about fairness, inclusivity, and competition integrity. To understand the diverse perspectives surrounding this topic, I've asked individuals from various backgrounds for their opinions on the ban of transgender women from female athletic events.
Proponents of the ban argue that the biological differences between cisgender women and transgender women can provide unfair advantages in sports. By allowing transgender women to compete in female events, they believe it undermines the integrity of women's sports as it creates an uneven playing field. Srishti, a former competitive state athlete, expresses concern about the potential physical advantages transgender women might have: “It is a topic that raises questions like fairness, inclusivity and competitive advantage. But again one should crucially handle the situation with empathy, respect, and priority that focuses on both fairness and inclusion of all athletes.”
Conversely, opponents of the ban advocate for inclusivity. They argue that regardless of the biological composition, every woman should have the right to compete in sports that are consistent with their gender identity. To them, respecting the rights and dignity of transgender individuals is far more important than the concept of justness in a game. They point out that excluding them from female athletic events perpetuates discrimination and marginalization. Skye, a member of the LGBTQ+ community asserts, "Transgender women are women, and they should be allowed to compete without discrimination. Excluding them based on outdated notions of biology is unjust."
Medical and scientific perspectives also contribute to the debate. Ethical considerations further complicate the issue, with questions arising about where to draw the line between inclusivity and maintaining a level playing field in sports. Is it fair to prioritize one group's rights over another's?
Cultural and societal attitudes also influence perspectives on transgender inclusion in sports. Traditional gender norms and stereotypes may shape opinions in what is considered a fair competition. Shreya, a sports enthusiast, reflects on the cultural context: "On one hand I do think they should be treated like women. On the other hand, I feel I get how in certain ways it is unfair. Because people use it as an argument to not treat trans women as people. Our understanding of gender and identity is evolving, but deeply ingrained beliefs about male and female athleticism still influence how we perceive transgender athletes."
Finding a balanced approach that respects both the rights of transgender individuals and the principles of fair competition remains a formidable challenge. The argument regarding transgender women's participation in female sports activities generates a variety of viewpoints informed by justice, inclusivity, medical research, ethics, culture, and the law. While there are real concerns on both sides of the debate, reaching an agreement needs meaningful discussion and a commitment to maintaining the principles of equality and respect for all athletes, regardless of gender identification.
The debate over the participation of transgender women in female athletic events elicits a range of perspectives. While there are valid concerns on both sides of the issue, finding common ground requires thoughtful engagement and a commitment to upholding the principles of equality and respect for all athletes, regardless of gender identity.
Trying to Journey Past F1’s Gender Barriers.
-Preetika X
Ever since the conception of Formula 1, it’s been a sport for the highly privileged, unwelcoming to outsiders who weren’t born in it or those who couldn’t buy into it. In recent years, there has been an almost negligible increase in job opportunities for women in the paddock.
In the main F1 grid, there have been only 7 female drivers who have officially competed in the Championship events. In 2017, rumours about an all-female series had started circulating in the paddock, but the issue was the lack of clear vision of how this would help women race in F1. Unlike in F2 and F3 where the winner of the championship couldn’t continue racing in the following season, the women of W series (female single-seater championship) had no clear ladder to climb. Since the first season of the W series (cancelled after three years), there has been only one champion–Jamie Chadwick. Despite her titles, Chadwick remained active in the series for three years before it ended prematurely due to financial constraints. Regardless of a career spanning 14 years of success in Motorsport, Chadwick remains a development driver while pursuing other series.
This isn’t only limited to the drivers but spreads beyond the grid– in managerial roles, engineers on and off trackside, pit crews, journalists, etc. Claire Williams was the first and last female Deputy Team Principal until her departure in 2020. Despite F1 commentary existing since its inception in 1950, Natalie Pinkham made history by becoming the first woman to commentate on a Formula 1 session on British television, in 2021 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. And in all this, most of the women who make it in F1 happen to be white, with the number of women of colour in the sport being negligible.
Even though the sport is providing opportunities for more women to enter the grid, that still doesn’t change the treatment towards them. In December 2023, the FIA launched an investigation into Susie Wolff for allegedly sharing confidential information with a team member. It was centred around her marriage to the Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, Toto Wolff. The media has continually proceeded to address her in relation to her husband, who she currently outranks. She openly criticised these anonymous allegations labelling them as “deeply misogynistic” stating that her marital status had been used against her, unfairly, to sow seeds of doubt. However, these allegations didn’t hold due to the lack of evidence but they created waves of conversation surrounding gender equality and the challenges women faced in reaching their full potential.
It also brought to light the unfortunate past of current F1 president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, according to Erin Ball at Mancunion who uncovered a now archived blog where Sulaymen wrote that he, “does not like women who think they are smarter than men, for they are not in truth,”.
In addition to this, Christian Horner, Team Principal for Red Bull has been accused of sexual misconduct with an employee of the team after a series of text messages between the two leaked. On the allegations he’s maintained the same response, “I won't comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations. I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way.” Red Bull as a company investigated, later on dismissing the claims, stating that they “were confident that the investigation has been fair, rigorous and impartial.”
The employee has since been suspended from her position at the team, according to The Sun.
During media days, Daniel Ricciardo, 8 times F1 race winner commented on the scandal saying, “You always want things to be smoother than they are. Right now there's a lot of noise and distractions....hopefully these things can slowly start to go away and they can just focus on being a race team." Other drivers provided similarly non-committal responses during interviews.
Although there has been a rising change in the attitude towards women in F1, equal attention must be given to ensure the security of women upon joining the sport or all their efforts would be futile. With the major increase in female viewership of the sport (40% globally, according to Forbes), F1 needs to advance in creating a culture of respect and support for all women both on and off track.
Blasphemy of the single-legged hopping.
On Superstitions in Sports
- Misbha
The building I used to live in had a narrow alley where all the kids played. I used to live on the first floor so Ammi would yell my name out when she found out we were playing hopscotch and call me back home. When she wasn’t home, I would call out to my friends and ask them to bring out their chalkbox. One of us would draw the numerical map on which we later hop on and another one of us would scour for a perfectly bouncy stone. The reason I had to do this in hiding was because somewhere sometime long long ago, my mother was told that the single-legged hopping that was done in the game, brought bad luck to a household. So biccha as we called hopscotch was banned for me and my brothers.
The idea of luck in sports is not uncommon. Michael Jordan, who was a student at the University of North Carolina, always wore his blue North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform for good luck. Even in Indian sports, many cricketers are known to have bizarre pre or during-the-game rituals. Sachin Tendulkar, throughout his career, wore his left pad before the right one for good luck.
“There are many superstitious rituals in football that players do. During my off time, I like to pull my socks down and pull them back up,” says Rishabh, who has been playing football since he was thirteen and has recently started coaching kids.
For Rishabh, performing that ritual acts as a reset, it helps him forget all the doings of the game up until that moment. He says it works for him almost always and gives him a fresh start in the game.
Dr Sahen Gupta, a sports psychologist and a high-performance coach in this article says that superstitions survive in sports because they provide Illusory Controls in situations within which we have very little control. Psychologically, these positive-luck-driven superstitious rituals help the athletes perform better because they feel more secure and confident post-ritual.
When I spoke to Dev Sinha, who has been playing professional Tennis for fourteen years now, said that the rituals he performs don’t affect his performance in the game, although he has quite a few. He says sport is different to everyone and as athletes develop in professional sport, they learn more about what helps and doesn’t.
Les Miles, the coach of the LSU Tigers Football team, chews on the field grass as a pre-game ritual. According to an interview, he says it humbles him as a man and lets him know that he's a part of the team and the game.
Rishabh, who has been coaching kids for the past six months says he doesn't have any rituals when he is coaching.
“As a coach, I only look to control the parts that I can, such as tactics, Instructions and team selection.”
Although playing hopscotch didn't contribute to the addition of bad luck in my family, my mother subconsciously associated bad events happening to our playing of hopscotch.
Despite superstitions not being scientific, there is some mental conditioning that is involved. Yusuf Matcheswalla, a psychiatrist, in this article, says that, as superstitions are driven by positive or negative outcomes, after performing the specific ritual, your subconscious mind is already working towards achieving the outcome and hence more often than not, you achieve the corresponding result.
The little Brazilians
- Melwin
Gautampura is a small locality in Ulsoor where football was a dream for the ‘little Peles’ residing there and also among them inhabited a great legend, Pele. People there become indignant when you call it a Pele statue because they believe the legend resides there and they call it ‘King Pele’s area’.Right behind the statue, there is a ground called ‘The World Cup ground’ where the Bangalore Brazilians play football, their dream sport. The kids there practice football from a very young age and very few players played for the Indian team too, but there are more than 100 kids who lack opportunities to play football for teams and clubs due to various reasons. Some survive in poverty, some lack money to pay their coaching fees and some lack support from their parents thinking there is no scope in football in the future. Jacob, a young boy who belongs to Gauntampura says ‘Playing football in India is like playing with your life’ and he also said that his parents told him that scoring goals won’t get you a goal in your life so better work and start earning. The footballers there seem to have no interest in playing football anymore even though they know that their life would have been better if they were selected in a club with a sports scholarship.
Once when we had a pre-match day practice we couldn’t practice in our ground because the ground was under renovation, so we all had to go to Halasuru to practice. We planned to have a practice match against the locals there who volunteered to play. As we started to play we realized that they were playing extremely well compared to our C division team even without a coach. Despite the fact that they didn’t have proper training they gave us good competition. then our coach Mr. Anup and Mr. Karuna sponsored a football kit for two players and took them into the team. Now they are playing in the C division tournament in our club.
The young Brazilians of Gautampura need favors from clubs and football teams to push them into the arena of playing football at a professional level. All they need is to get identified by some trainers to get inside the team. The whole little Peles of Gautampura is still waiting in hope to become a great footballer in India.