For about 20 minutes on August 4, 2021, every Indian wanted just one thing, just one goal.
And while we were not so lucky to witness that, we did witness history.
We witnessed our women’s hockey team play in an Olympic semifinal for the first time.
We witnessed a great goal.
And we witnessed the same fighting spirit with which these athletes made their way to where they are now.
So, as the team prepares for the bronze-medal fight, it should know that the result of this match, or any other in future, will not shake our belief.
Nor will we ever not be proud of it.
Because everything worth talking about in sports exists between the binaries of winning and losing.
We know the kind of lives these athletes have led. We know the struggles they have faced…and we also know that as a nation we could have done more.
Hence, if anything, it’s us who are looking to be worthy of this group of amazing athletes.
So you keep your heads up Rani and team.
Sports finds unique ways of breaking one’s heart and of mending it.
Your hearts will mend again, the wounds will heal, and decades from now, when a new generation of Hockey lovers asks us who were our icons, we will take your names.
We will always remember your names.