Srinagar, July 10 (GNS): Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha interacted with Indian Wushu team athletes & their coaches bound for 19th Asian Games, at Raj Bhavan, today.
The Lt Governor conveyed his best wishes and blessings of entire J&K UT to the players, attending training camp at Srinagar.
“I am confident that our contingent will win laurels and make the country proud,” the Lt Governor said.
The Wushu players are attending the National Coaching camp in Srinagar organised by Sports Authority of India, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports after which they will leave for China on August 5, 2023. (GNS)
New Delhi: Hours after star wrestler Vinesh Phogat appealed to sportspersons to join their protest to oust under-fire chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra took to social media to announce his solidarity with the athletes.
Vinesh along with Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik have been sitting on an indefinite protest at Jantar Mantar against WFI supremo Singh, who has allegedly harassed seven female wrestlers including a minor.
Bindra, who has always voiced his opinion in favour of distressed sportspersons, took to twitter to term the incident “deeply concerning”.
“As athletes, we train hard every day to represent our country on the international stage. It is deeply concerning to see our athletes finding it necessary to protest on the streets regarding the allegations of harassment in the Indian wrestling administration,” Bindra tweeted.
Bindra said that all the concerns raised by top wrestlers should be addressed by the administration.
“My heart goes out to all those who have been affected. We must ensure that this issue is handled properly, with the athletes’ concerns heard and addressed fairly and independently.
“This incident highlights the crucial need for a proper safeguarding mechanism that can prevent harassment and ensure justice for those affected. We must work towards creating a safe and secure environment for all athletes to thrive in,” he added.
During debate over the bill on Wednesday, several GOP lawmakers argued the bill was necessary because of the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule on athletics eligibility that would allow transgender girls to play sports with some limitations. Democrats pushed back by invoking Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in their defense of transgender women and girls. Cox, a Republican, vetoed a similar sports ban in the state and acknowledged several challenges transgender students face.
The bill has no chance of becoming law as it is likely to stall in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and President Joe Biden has already announced that he would veto the bill if it were to reach his desk.
Several lawmakers did not vote on the bill, including 10 Democrats and 3 Republicans.
Amendments: Lawmakers passed by voice vote an amendment from Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) that would clarify that the term “athletic programs and activities” in the bill includes any activities where you have to participate on a team.
Additionally, Republicans shored up enough votes to add an amendment from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that would direct the Government Accountability Office to lead a study on “the adverse psychological, developmental, participatory and sociological results to girls” from allowing transgender girls to play sports. GAO would also investigate “hostile environment creation, sexual assault and sexual harassment” from a decision to allow transgender students to play on girls sports teams.
“Republicans are following the science,” Mace said on the floor. “We are not confused about the differences between biological men and biological women. And as a woman who is pro LGBTQ, I don’t care how you dress, I don’t care what pronoun you take, I don’t care if you change your gender, but we ought to protect biological women and girls and their athletics and their achievements.”
Reaction: Several Democratic and civil rights groups supporting transgender students slammed the bill’s passage as a political attack under the guise of protecting women’s sports.
“We will not let anti-LGBTQI+ Republicans — who have refused to work with us on addressing real gender equity issues— use ‘protecting women’ as an excuse to attack trans youth,” said Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Lois Frankel in a statement. “When my Republican colleagues want to join with us to address the actual pressing issues impacting girls’ and women’s sports, I stand ready to work with them.”
The Human Rights Campaign said 40 athletes, including Megan Rapinoe, CeCe Telfer and Chris Mosier, signed a letter this month that rebuked a federal anti-transgender sports ban. HRC President Kelley Robinson in a statement said because the bill has no chance of becoming law, “this is purely a waste of time at the expense of an already marginalized population.”
“Rather than focus their energy on doing literally anything to improve the lives of children, House Republicans have prioritized attacking transgender youth purely as a political ploy,” Robinson said.
Conservative groups and cisgender women athletes they represent lauded the bill’s passage saying it reaffirms the promise of equal opportunity for women in Title IX.
“I want to ensure no other girl experiences the emotional pain and lost opportunities I experienced in high school,” said Selina Soule, a former high school track and field athlete whose challenge against a Connecticut policy on transgender athletes will be heard by the full 2nd Circuit, in a statement. “There are clear biological differences between men and women and I experienced that firsthand, which is why I’m very grateful for the U.S. House passing this bill.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The bill “targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget wrote. “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams.”
The statement notes that local schools, coaches and athletic associations are already working on participation rules for transgender children. A national ban would disrupt that more nuanced process, it said.
The threats come ahead of House Republicans’ plan to bring the two proposals to the floor as early as this week in their latest bid to advance agenda items that force congressional Democrats into politically tough votes.
House Democrats had sought strongly worded veto threats from the administration, particularly when it came to the transgender sports bill, several Hill aides said.
Democrats are also trying to avoid a repeat of the confusion over Biden’s position on GOP-led bills that prompted many lawmakers to vote against an earlier policing reform rollback in February — only to see Biden decide to support the measure weeks later.
In 2021, Gov. Doug Burgum vetoed a nearly identical bill that would have banned transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools. | Stephen Yang/Getty Images
By Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum on Tuesday evening signed two transgender athlete bans into law, effectively prohibiting transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams in K-12 and college.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate passed the bills with veto-proof majorities this year. If the governor had vetoed the bills or refused to sign them, the bills likely would’ve still become law.
At least 19 other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes. Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, especially targeting transgender people’s everyday lives — including sports, health care, bathrooms, workplaces and schools.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
If you wanted to see how SailGP is changing the culture of sailing, last month’s event in Singapore offered a perfect visual. Each of the boat’s crews carry two grinders, usually a pair of towering men with Popeye biceps whose arms can generate the same power output as an Olympic rowers’ legs. When the US boat won the second race of the heats, however, there was a woman at the winch. She was 5ft 4in and 19 years old.
“I’m probably the world’s smallest grinder,” says a laughing CJ Perez, the team strategist who also grinds when winds are especially light. “The first time I did it, two years ago, I was gassed afterwards.”
She took herself to the gym and worked on her strength. After the race in Singapore, she screamed with delight as they crossed the finish line. “I was just so happy, I felt I had helped the team a lot.”
This is season three of SailGP, the global competition designed by the America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts to be the Formula One of sailing. In its roster of “grand prix”, foiling catamarans fly around courses at such high speeds that their hulls never need to touch the water and sailors are pinned to the sides of the craft by the G-force. On Saturday and Sunday, spectators will flock to the Sydney shoreline to watch the spectacle, promising everything from physics-defying manoeuvres to dramatic capsizes and, occasionally, collisions.
Natasha Bryant, strategist for Australia SailGP, at the Spain Sail Grand Prix in September. Photograph: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
Not so long ago, there was no such thing as a professional racing career in sailing. The apex of the sport, the America’s Cup, takes place every four years and opportunities to take part have always been restricted to a handful of athletes. They have always been men.
SailGP’s inaugural season in 2018 was an all-male affair, but when it returned for its second edition in 2020-21, the rules required every team to take to the water with at least one female crew member. Their “women’s pathway programme” was intended to open up elite racing and its immediate success proves how powerful such structural interventions can be.
Perez grew up in Honolulu, but while all her friends surfed she never tried watersports until six years ago. “I didn’t come from a family of sailors,” she says, “and I don’t want to say I was clueless, but all I wanted was to get on the water and go fast. It wasn’t until I started going abroad and racing internationally that I saw, wow, there aren’t enough females in the sport.”
A natural from the moment she stepped in a boat, Perez won her first world title within two years. Jimmy Spithill, captain of SailGP’s USA team, was the youngest winner of the America’s Cup in 2010 and when he saw videos of Perez he knew he was looking at a future star. In 2021, she made her SailGP debut, the first Latina and the youngest woman in the competition.
She admits to more than a few rookie mistakes. “The first day I went on the F50 I had put my wetsuit on backwards,” she says. “The guys on the chase boat pointed it out. The logos were all on my butt.”
The generation gap with the rest of the crew (at 43, Spithill is old enough to be her father) makes for equally amusing culture clash at the team’s HQ, where the soundtrack is usually 80s music and country. “I want to listen to hip-hop and talk about boys, but I don’t think they’re into that.”
Natasha Bryant, of the Australia team, is three years older than Perez. Growing up in north Sydney, her ambition was to play soccer for her country. “I had my heart set on being a Matilda,” she says. “But my brother was getting competitive with his sailing and he needed a training partner.”
Aged 11, she went out on the water with him every day after school, a sibling rivalry that pushed them both. Their next-door neighbour and babysitter Jason Waterhouse, who won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, was their sporting role model. He’s now Bryant’s crew-mate on the Australia team.
CJ Perez, strategist for the USA team, after a practice session for the Denmark SailGP. Photograph: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP
Like Perez, Bryant had been surprised by the small pool of female talent. “At our first youth world championships there were 250 boats and less than 20 of those were girls’ teams.” Having missed out on selection at her first SailGP trial, she found herself on an F50 a few weeks later and was handed the wheel by the Australia captain, Tom Slingsby.
“I was there as the reserve sailor, so I wasn’t even sure if I’d get on the boat,” says Bryant. “But Tom didn’t give me any time to think about it, he just said ‘here you go’… I was really naive. Everyone laughs at me, but I’d only been in dinghies before, so I’d never sailed anything with a wheel. I was thinking: ‘OK, it’ll be kind of like driving a car.’ It wasn’t.”
Skippering an F50 is like nothing else on earth. Flying speeds of up to 60mph (Olympic-class boats top out at less than 20mph) require quick thinking and nerves of steel. They also demand perfect communication between the crew, especially the wing trimmer, responsible for managing the windpower to the boat, and the flight controller, whose job is to keep the boat off the water and gliding on its foils. Two grinders work on the winch handles to move the wing back and forth as required.
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The remaining role, which all of the women on the pathway programme assume, is that of strategist, feeding information that helps the team make best use of conditions and anticipating the movements of the other boats to find the driver the fastest route. “The races are so short that if you collide or get stuck with traffic it’s really hard to get out of it,” says Bryant. “And everything happens so quickly that the further ahead you can plan the easier it is to have a smooth clean race.”
For Hannah Mills, the role came naturally. She and Ben Ainslie are the most successful British Olympic sailors of all time and their skills complement each other well. “Ben used to be a single-handed sailor, whereas I have always sailed double-handed,” she says. “I came from Tokyo with a lot of skills and experience in communicating in a team.”
Hannah Mills at the San Francisco SailGP last year. Photograph: Thomas Lovelock for SailGP
Bryant found the most urgent lesson was when to talk and when not to. “In my first few races I got so nervous I was a little bit quiet.” The encouragement of her more experienced male teammates gave her confidence. “Now I pretend I’m the one driving and think: ‘What input would I like to hear right now?’”
All three women want to become drivers and they can achieve that only by gaining experience on the F50s, which is hard when the athletes sail the boats for only three days each race weekend. “The lack of training time is the biggest challenge,” says Perez.
“The organisers have talked about putting in a training block next season to have the women on the boat for longer, but you need funding to do that.” She will miss the next two races to give other women on the US team the opportunity to sail.
The Australia GP will be Mills’s third race; she debuted in 2021 before stepping back to have her first baby. Off the boat, she took responsibility for a number of gender equality and sustainability projects including the Athena Pathway, which she and Ainslie launched last August to fast-track female athletes into high-performance foiling and encourage young people into careers within the sport. It is the engine room for the British campaign to win the first Women’s America’s Cup and defend the Youth America’s Cup in Barcelona next year.
Returning post-pregnancy was a feat of physical preparation. “I was nervous because I’d gone from being in the best form of my life at the Tokyo Olympics to a very different body,” says Mills. In Singapore, she had her ankles taped to combat the softening of ligaments that occurs when breastfeeding.
Motherhood contributed to her decision not to launch an Olympic campaign for Paris 2024, but the opportunities afforded by SailGP are also a factor. Bryant, who missed out on selection for Tokyo, says even a year ago she never imagined any career in sailing beyond the Olympic Games. “It was what I wanted to do for so many years and it’s weird to change my mind, but SailGP has given us an avenue I never really thought was possible. I enjoy being with this team and I’m learning so much.”
Thanks to her fellow crew, Bryant owns her first Moth, a foiling dinghy for single-handed racing, while Perez will soon be in Miami, trialling for the USA team for the Women’s America’s Cup. “In high school I didn’t even think sailing was a profession,” she says. “This is history in the making.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, India’s top wrestlers including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and others, staged a protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on January 18, levelling serious charges of sexual harassment against him and the coaches of the federation.
The wrestlers in a letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) also alleged financial misappropriation and misgovernance in the WFI and claimed that the coaches and sports science staff were ‘incompetent’.
The WFI hit back and said that the protest was baseless and driven by a “hidden agenda to dislodge the current management”, which led to even sharper reactions from the wrestlers.
Eventually, the PT Usha led Indian Olympic Association and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur intervened, heard the grievances of the wrestlers and promised them full justice. Not satisfied with the assurance, the grapplers had multiple meetings with the minister, some of which were late night. This eventually led to the stepping aside of the under-fire Brij Bhushan till an oversight committee probes the allegations and submits its report.
The oversight committee led by the legendary boxer Mary Kom is currently handling the day-to-day activities of the WFI and also looking into the allegations made by the wrestlers.
Last week’s protest should definitely be a wake-up call for the other sports bodies in the country to address serious issues and prioritise the well-being and safety of Indian women athletes.
The Indian sports administrators often claim that they have a ‘robust’ system, which gives a level playing field to athletes irrespective of their gender. However, the recent development and serious allegations have burst that bubble.
No doubt, things have improved drastically for Indian athletes in the last few years. Whether it’s a male or female sportsperson, they have far better access to facilities, coaches and grounds. Even people in general have changed their mindset towards the country’s female athletes.
But the bigger question is whether these women athletes are feeling safe at practice, during trials or even competitions. Are they having a sense of security to perform at their best?
The wrestlers, who have levelled serious allegations against the WFI chief, are top sportspersons, who have brought many laurels for India. If they are not feeling safe, one can only imagine the plight of women athletes at the lower division levels where they often don’t raise their issues and even if they do, most people don’t care.
So, it’s time for the Indian government, sports ministry and other federations to address the issue and create an environment where women athletes can speak up about their difficulties and discomfort. If they receive a complaint, they must take action against the culprits.
Apart from sports, there are many sectors and industries in the country which have seen issues of sexual misconduct and the action taken there has set precedents.
If the allegations turn out to be true, then the Sports Ministry must take strong action, which will ensure justice to the athletes and allow others to raise their issues, eventually leading to a healthy Indian sporting ecosystem.
