One small bar for Sahana Kumari, giant leap for women in Olympics

Sahana Kumari clearing the bar

Sahana Kumari will take to the field in the Women’s High Jump Qualification today at 2 pm. She has had to clear many bars to get this far, besides the jump bar. Her high school physical education teacher Purushotam Poojary used to fund her travel for competitions. The tables have turned on that as this time she had to make an effort to try and have her coach accompany her. The National Committee of India has a sanctioned quota of only 5 coaches and her coach could not be included. ‘Ek Aur Prayaas’, an NGO, helped get funds to cover the travelling expenses of her coach.

As she clears the bar today, there’s another bar which is being cleared. Sahana Kumari was just two years old when PT Usha became the first woman athlete from India to participate in the finals of an Olympic event in 1984. And this time around, it marks the first time that each and every country participating in the Olympics is sending a woman.

As recently as the 1996 Olympic Games at Atlanta, 26 countries did not even send women to participate. And now, the U.S. team has more women than men for the first time — 269 female athletes to 261 men. The three countries which were holding out on sending women – Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – are fielding female athletes for the first time.

Half of our medals in this Olympics have come from women – two bronzes from Saina Nehwal and MC Mary Kom. And there are three female athletes participating in today’s events for India. Geeta Phogat in wrestling and Tinku Luka in the 800m race are the other two apart from Sahana.

All men are born equal. Well, what about the women? Why not say all humans are born equal?

The only area where women were considered to be behind men was physique. That makes this milestone all the more important. Smoking cigarettes had been one of the tools of the liberation movement. The World Wars played a part. And all along the cause was being pushed on another frontier, one which would negate the physique factor when it comes to drawing lines between men and women.

Women may not be able to run as fast as men, or jump as high or whatever. But men can’t run faster or jump higher than a cheetah or a monkey either. We don’t bestow those animals higher status because they are physically superior to us. Why do the same for men vs women?

Ok fine. Given the choice, I wouldn’t want to watch WNBA over NBA. The NBA game is faster, stronger and more exciting. That being said, check out the following analogy:

The Tarahamura tribe in Africa boasts of some of the greatest long-distance runners in this world. One theory behind their amazing trait is that it was born out of necessity. They had a unique method of chasing down their prey for food.

The deer may be faster, but there’s a catch. A deer doesn’t perspire. It can’t sweat to cool off. A man vs deer race would be like a turtle vs hare race without a finish line. The deer won’t stop running until the man stops chasing it and the man won’t stop chasing it until he bears down on the deer.

A deer will run very fast, then slow down to cool off. The man chasing him isn’t as fast, but he has a built-in cooling mechanism. The Tarahamura tribe literally run their prey down to death. In about two days’ time the deer will drop dead from exhaustion.

Given the choice you’d rather watch a cheetah chase a deer for a few breathtaking, breezy minutes than a Tarahamura tribesman run it down in a race of attrition over a course of days.

Yeah, given the choice I wouldn’t watch WNBA over NBA. Just like I’d rather watch a cheetah cantering away after its prey than watch a Tarahamura tribe run a deer down over two days.

Does that make the cheetah superior to the Tarahamura? Does the fact that you’d rather watch NBA over WNBA make the latter inferior? Each has different things going for it. One appeal of the WNBA game is that it is slower, the athletes can’t rely on their otherworldly athleticism to get by, they need polished skills.

When I need a break from high flying jams, I do turn to the WNBA game which relies more on skills than on physique. Obviously it’s rare to be able to dunk, but it takes more polished skills to make a layup than to just slam a ball down.

Yeah, so am animal can chase a deer down with ease, and a man being physically inferior can do the same in his own way. But there are a lot of things which a man can do but animals can’t.

Men being physically superior to women. Animals being physically superior to men. We don’t accord animals with higher status just because they are physically superior. Next time a guy flaunts his physical superiority over women, just remind him that he’s boasting about something as shallow as a monkey coming up to you and saying “Yo puny human! I can jump higher.” Well good for you monkey. Good for you.

Sahana Kumari is the national record holder, having cleared 1.92 meters. The record for men is 2.25 meters by Hari Shankar Roy. Yeah, given the choice you’d rather watch him jump; men might be better at running and jumping. But if you want to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree…

Whoever called them the weaker sex, should have his head examined.