Laishram Sarita Devi’s journey from the insurgency-affected streets of Manipur to the international boxing arena is one of defiance, resilience, and hard-earned success. After the tragic loss of her father, a young Sarita was tempted to join the insurgency, even transporting weapons for militants. But before she could lose herself to that life, her brother intervened, steering her toward sports.

Sarita initially took out her frustration in taekwondo before transitioning to boxing under the guidance of coach Ibomcha Singh at his academy. Here, she met fellow-boxer Mary Kom and the two became fast friends. This shift didn’t just save her—it ignited a passion for boxing and a dream to represent India. Her rise began in 2005, with a bronze at the World Championships in Podolsk, Russia. Just a year later, she clinched gold in New Delhi. Over the years, she added five Asian titles and a Commonwealth Games silver to her name, becoming a versatile and dominant figure in the sport. At a time when financial struggles plagued her family, her victories also secured a stable job with the Manipur Police, giving her the security to continue boxing.

The defining moment of her career came during the 2014 Asian Games, where she controversially lost a semifinal bout to South Korea’s Park Ji-Na, despite a dominant performance. In protest of what she saw as biased judging, Sarita refused to accept her bronze medal, attempting to place it around Park’s neck. Her defiant stand drew condemnation from officials, leading to a one-year ban, but it also sparked conversations about fairness in sports.

The fallout strained her relationship with fellow boxer Mary Kom, whose gold medal that day was overshadowed by Sarita’s protest. Despite this, Sarita’s courage turned her into a symbol of integrity, inspiring a generation of athletes, even as her own career dimmed in the years that followed.

At the end of this episode of Almost Perfect, our series about women athletes who competed alongside the best but faded from the spotlight, Sarita Devi shares a special message for Indian youth.

This show is produced by Confluence Media for Radio Azim Premji University.

Credits:

Achie Humtsoe, Anisa Draboo, Gautam Datt, Jasleen Bhalla, Josy Joseph, Omair Farooq, and Siddhartha Mishra

Radio Azim Premji University:

Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar

For a comprehensive list of acknowledgments and resources, please visit our website: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/almost-perfect-stories-of-forgotten-indian-women-athletes/how-boxer-sarita-devi-almost-became-a-militant

In 1984, four Indian track-and-field athletes delivered what was then the best-ever performance by Indian women at the Los Angeles Olympics. The standout athlete, PT Usha, missed the bronze medal in the 400-meter hurdles by just one hundredth of a second. Usha and her fellow sprinters Shiny Wilson (née Abraham), M D Valsamma, and Vandana Rao, made history by qualifying for the finals of the 4x400 meters relay. Although they finished last, they set a new Asian record and were celebrated as the "Golden Girls" of Indian athletics.

Among the four, Usha continued to achieve great success and became a household name. Shiny Wilson and M D Valsamma shone in the Asian circuit but gradually faded from public memory. Vandana Rao’s athletic career, however, came to an abrupt end after the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

This is her story.

Born into a conservative Brahmin family in Mangaluru, Karnataka, a teenage Vandana showed promise when she broke the state record at a school sports event. As she began to shine in the local sports circuit, her teachers and coaches highlighted her talent to her parents, assuring them that their child was indeed a star.

The impact was significant on Vandana’s father, who had been the most reluctant to let his daughter participate in the races. Despite raising Vandana in a strictly vegetarian household, he began making protein-rich egg flips to build her strength and support her athletic pursuits.

Vandana’s breakthrough came at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, marking the start of her international career. She went on to represent India at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. Setting the Asian record with the Indian women's 4x400m relay team was the high point of her career.

Although she did not win any medals at the 1982 Asian Games, Vandana caught the attention of Kenneth Bosen, one of the most respected athletics coaches of the time. Bosen noticed Vandana’s impressive stride length and suggested she transition to running the 400 meters. She followed his advice and made the switch.

Just as Vandana’s star began to rise, she encountered a different set of obstacles that set off a series of events leading to her departure from athletics forever. Although she was feted with an Arjuna Award, she remains the only one among the quartet who has not been considered for a Padma award.

To hear Vandana’s full story, listen to the episode.

This show is produced by Confluence Media for Radio Azim Premji University.

Credits:

Achie Humtsoe, Anisa Draboo, Gautam Datt, Jasleen Bhalla, Josy Joseph, Omair Farooq, and Siddhartha Mishra

Radio Azim Premji University:

Akshay Ramuhalli, Bijoy Venugopal, Bruce Lee Mani, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar

For a comprehensive list of acknowledgments and resources, please visit our website: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/almost-perfect-stories-of-forgotten-indian-women-athletes-2

Love is a racket emotion.

On the tennis court, it signifies emptiness, loss, humiliation.

And, yet, it is love for the game that keeps the most tenacious players going.

Not to forget, love keeps them going long after their glorious fifteen seconds on grass or clay have evaporated into the mists of history.

Archana Venkataraman basked in that spotlight. She was a rising star.

It takes a family wedded to tennis to raise a star, and hers was no different. From age four, between school days and holidays in Bengaluru, she and her sister Arthi were ferried from one tournament to another, one coaching clinic to the next.

It paid off. Archana won her maiden title at age seventeen. Soon, she was crowned national champion.

The decade turned. The 1990’s brought Liberalisation. The national economy opened up. Sponsor money began to pour into sporting events. Yet, in a nation besotted with cricket, facilities and infrastructure for tennis were scant. Promising players paid their own way for the most part. Only those undaunted by the expenses remained in the fray.

In 1998, Archana and Arthi won an International Tennis Federation grant of $2000 to play tournaments in Europe. The trip was a revelation: every match the sisters lost counted for lessons learned. They brought their experience back home to India and had a productive run for the next three years.

The competition was getting fierce, but Archana Venkataraman held fort. Until, at the finals of the National Games in 2002, she came up against a younger, hungrier, grittier rival — 16-year-old Sania Mirza. Playing the newcomer on her home turf in Hyderabad and booed by a hostile crowd of spectators, Archana went down in a firestorm of deuces.

And thus began Sania’s decade.

History celebrates victors but their thrones are held aloft by the bruised arms of the vanquished. When her fortunes in competitive tennis faded, Archana threw everything into rearing the next generation of stars at her coaching academy in Bengaluru.

In over a century of competitive tennis, only four Indian women have made it to a Grand Slam event. Viewed in that sobering light, Archana Venkataraman’s story is one of pride, guts, and raging against the odds, shortchanged only on glory.

No love lost there.

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This show is produced by Confluence Media for Radio Azim Premji University.

Credits:

Achie Humtsoe, Anisa Draboo, Gautam Datt, Jasleen Bhalla, Josy Joseph, Omair Farooq, and Siddhartha Mishra

For a comprehensive list of acknowledgments and resources, please visit our website: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/almost-perfect-stories-of-forgotten-indian-women-athletes-2