Janneke Schopman, a 46-year-old Dutchwoman, who won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games, and a World Cup winner has been coaching the Indian Hockey team for 4 years now. Recently, she announced her resignation from her role as a coach, claiming that she feels “neglected” and “disrespected” as a female coach by the sports administrations of the country.
“Even when I was the assistant coach some people wouldn’t even look at me or wouldn’t acknowledge me”, she said.
She specifically mentioned what difference she felt between India and the Netherlands, “Coming from the Netherlands, having worked in the USA, this country is extremely difficult as a woman. Coming from a culture where you can have an opinion and it’s valued. It’s really hard.”
“I come from a CULTURE where women are RESPECTED and VALUED. I don’t feel that here”.
It is disappointing to hear that we failed as a country and let this woman down, who has made everyone proud. This proves that if a woman, who is well-recognized for her achievements at the International Level can be treated like this, how will we treat a common woman?
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Sports has been considered a male-dominated field but several sportspersons like Mary Kom, P V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Hima Das etc have been proving this orthodoxical thinking wrong for a long time now.
How long do we women have to run to prove ourselves worthy of the same respect that men have served on a plate? It’s time we stop discriminating against women sportspersons and recognise and respect their achievements equally as of a man.
