When a sportswoman wins an international medal, something significant shifts. The impact spans out in multiple directions, like a movie special effect, altering equations of social norms, individual aspiration and sense of self. The idea that women can be a source of pride, not impending shame, becomes visible. The idea of the beta as naam roshan karne wala is weakened. A door opens, so that more girls can enter the field.

In 2016, when Sakshi Malik won an Olympic medal, she said, “I had never anticipated such an overwhelming response to my victory, considering the hostile attitude they had towards me in all my training years as a woman wrestler. Let your daughters play!” Yaniki, let girls experience their bodies not as sites of control, but of liberation, fun, power, ambition.