Marriage not an ultimate target for Khel Ratna awardee Rani Rampal

Indian Women Hockey Team’s prolific Captain, Rani Rampal made her place at the national team in 2009 as a 14-year-old girl. From being born in a humble family where getting two proper meals a day was a luxury to winning the Khel Ratna award, Rani, a cart puller’s daughter, has come a long way through sheer talent, hard work and on-field success. Today, she’s one of the finest hockey players in India.

As a celebrity, one of the questions that often comes her way is “When are you getting married?”. Rani, who have now become an expert on dodging such questions, recently in an interview with the Hindustan Times said that her ultimate target is not marriage.

“I made my parents understand that my ultimate target is not marriage. What I can achieve now as a player, I can’t achieve it later. They understood,” Rampal said.

Having seen many of her fellow athletes move away from the game after marriage, Rani stated how the "society" believes that once you represent India or get a job, it’s time for the athlete to tie the knot.

“Relatives continuously tell your parents and pressure builds up. Parents start believing in these things. But things have changed a lot over the years and parents have now started to understand,” she added.

She became the first woman hockey player to be awarded the nation’s highest sporting honour—Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

“It is a big honour for me but this is also a big recognition for women’s hockey. The Indian team has performed consistently well in the last few years but somewhere I also had the feeling that it’s very difficult to get the country’s highest sporting honour for a woman hockey player. This will encourage girls to play hockey and realize their dream of playing for the country,” she told the paper.

Rani opened up about her childhood to Deccan Herald, right after winning the Khel Ratna.

"It has been a very difficult journey," Rani recalled in a chat with Deccan Herald. "My father was a cart puller. We were a big family and it was difficult. Sometimes we would wonder whether we could eat two proper meals a day. But one thing I figured out when I was a kid was that if we harboured ambitions and worked hard, we could succeed.

"I fell in love with hockey as a young kid. I figured that if I excelled in hockey, my life would become better and also would get a chance to represent the country which is a huge honour. My father, despite his limitations, worked very hard so that I could pursue my hockey dreams.

"Being a girl, especially from modest backgrounds and small towns, it’s not easy. But he really went out of his way to ensure my hockey dream didn't suffer. He always motivated me to take up sports despite societal pressure. I thank Hockey India also for believing in me. I was just a 14-year-old playing hockey as an escape from the daily struggles. They saw the talent in me, picked me and turned me into this final product. I owe them also a lot."

She said that now her next target is to shine at the Tokyo Olympics and take the sport in the country to the next level. "We haven’t played hockey for 4-5 months now because of coronavirus, so the support staff in working very hard to help us get into good shape. The main target is to do well at the Olympics. Last time (2016) we qualified for the first time (second time actually), so there were jitters in the camp. Now we have qualified for the again and looking forward to it with great hope. Target is to reach the quarterfinals. Once we reach the quarterfinals it’s anybody’s game after that. If we do well at the Olympics, it'll give the sport a major fillip," she added.