KARSTEN MIRANDA
MARGAO: While Indian women are writing Olympic history for India in 2016, 64 years ago, Mary D’Souza was the first Goan female to go to Olympics in 1962 in Helsinki and blazed the trail for other Indian Women in Sports in India.
She was part of a group of four women that made up the first female contingent from free India to represent the nation at the Olympics.
Mary was one of 12 children who rose to represent India in Track and Field and in Hockey, from humble beginnings. She was also part of the gold medal winning squad in the 1953 Asian Games at Manila and one of the women in the hockey team as well that went to England in 1953 and to Australia in 1956. She was only 21 years old and won two medals in the first Asian Games in the relay and a bronze in 200 meters.
She was the reigning champion as her records show and did 12.3 seconds in the 100’s at the time. She also held the Asian record. She was selected to go to the Olympics in 1956 but the Government of India said they had no funds and would not send a woman’s team. Incidentally she got the Dhyan Chand Award by
the Central government after 62 years from President Pranab Mukherjee and ironically her first coach was the legend Dhyan Chand himself for the Indian women’s hockey team in 1953.
“Sports taught me a lot about the ‘Game of Life’. It helped me to take things in my stride no matter how hard the course of life has been. I am in the twilight of my life, and I hope that like Mother Mary, my story brings hope and inspiration to some child reading it in India, that they too can strive to use their God given talents to bring honour to God and country,” said the 85-year-old Mary who lives with her family in Atlanta. Mary who is enjoying her time as a grandmother has two children — Richard and Marissa. Her husband Francis Saluzinho Sequeira was born and raised in Saligao while Mary’s origins are in Quitol, Aldona on her father’s side .
Mary had to face a lot of hurdles such as poor facilities at the school and University level with no access to grounds or a proper coach and she used to observe what others were doing and practiced alone by following what they were doing. When she went to the Olympics, the local community in Bandra organized a dance to raise money for her.
“When I went to the Olympics I did not have starting blocks. The reigning Olympic champion Harrison Dillard asked me ‘where are your starting blocks?’ I told him that I did not have any; he gave me his. This made world headlines at the time,” said Mary.
Mary performances were covered in the media and she feels that the coverage at her time in the press was equal for both men and women. In many of her newspaper cuttings you see Asian Games winner Lavy Pinto, another forgotten Goan legend of the track and field who made it to semi-finals at the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Mary may have had a glorious past but she still lives and revels in the present. “I read that two sports women (PV Sindhu and Sakshi Mallik) won medals at the Rio Olympics and that they have been getting a lot of recognition and monetary awards. I am happy for them,” said Mary while complimenting the performances of the Indian contingent at the Olympics.
