If you seek with a true heart – with your eyes and soul open – you can find inspiration in places you never thought of looking before.

From the dawn of competitive sport with the Panhellenic Games in ancient Greece (which included the ancient Olympics), athletes have always been massive sources of inspiration for those following them. It’s the same now and will always be exactly that way.

But take a step back and think about the other side of the coin – the men and women who put in their 100% every single day to try and be the best athletic versions of themselves, spurred by the knowledge that they have the power to inspire many. The trouble is the heroic tales of many such athletes are watched and applauded only by a select few – those who actually follow these sports closely. So what about those who never really make the headlines? Those who the spotlight does not shine on very firmly?

The Indian sporting landscape is densely populated with countless such stories. Stories of grit and determination, stories of athletes pursuing the more niche sports with dogged determination and a burning passion, knowing full well that constant media and corporate attention as well as wide fan-base adulation will perhaps always be luxuries – which they might just get a taste of for a while, but something that is very firmly reserved for the ‘bigger’, more high-profile sports in the country. These are stories that are followed by a select, fast dwindling group of journalists and mostly by the families and friends of the athletes themselves.

But stories of young athletes never cease to inspire. Which is why it’s incumbent upon us to highlight certain journeys that still have many miles to go, in the hope that more and more people notice, applaud, and come forward to support these youngsters, who have already achieved a lot and who could one day become shining beacons of hope and inspiration for countless others. And imagine just how inspiring the stories can be if they belong to teenage Indian girls. Athletes like Shriya Lohia, Kasha Nia Sachdev and Noa Eappen.

Shriya Lohia’s need for speed and a determination to challenge notions

Shriya is 15, a school-girl from Sundernagar in Himachal Pradesh, who is home-schooled, because she needs time and space to focus on her one true passion in life – motorsports.

The sight of a young girl scorching race tracks is not a very common one, after all the ratio of men to women in competitive motorsports is completely skewed, but Shriya hopes that her efforts will go a long way in making a dent in that narrative.

“I feel like I’m like any other driver. It’s not that I’m the only female driver – that doesn’t stay in my head as much as anyone would think. Because I like to focus on the fact that I’m a driver and not any different because of my gender. I’m just like the guys, I’ve earned my spot,” Shriya says.

That she has and so far she has also made all the right moves.

On your marks: How the journey began

Shriya began professional kart racing at the age of nine in 2018. The very next year she won the Outstanding Woman in Motorsports for 2018 award given by the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India (FMSCI). The same year saw multiple podium finishes as she finished second in the FMSCI National Karting Championship.

Shriya in fact showed signs very early on that she might have been born to race. She participated in the 2018 National Rotax Max Championship after just 2-3 months of training and finished fourth.

In 2020 she was awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. She continued to set race tracks on fire both in the country and in international races, making her transition from the junior to the senior circuit, and was picked as the ‘Best Female driver of the year’ in Indian Motorsports for 2022. This was the same year when she qualified for the final stage of the FIA Girls on Track – Rising stars selections at the Circuit Paul Ricard, near Marseille in France.

Shriya found herself in the fast lane and she loved it. But what she also managed to do while winning races and awards was join an elite list of female drivers who, in different eras and racing disciplines, have shattered some of the long held preconceived notions about women in motorsports. Notions like – women are not cut out to handle speed because their bodies can’t take the g-force generated.

G-force is essentially the force that a driver’s body experiences when the vehicle or craft she or he is in accelerates or decelerates very quickly. The unit ‘g’ is what denotes the acceleration/deceleration due to gravity, where 1 g is the normal pull of gravity. Severe g-forces can lead to the driver losing consciousness. For a quick comparison – early astronauts experienced g-forces of about 3 g during lift-off and about 6 g during re-entry. A F1 car driver can experience upto 6 g or more at high speed corners and rapid deceleration.

Get, set, go: From karting to Formula racing

Shriya’s racing career however continued to accelerate and her achievements began to make heads turn. Word spread that this youngster was special. Not bad for a little girl who decided to race professionally at the age of nine, after coming across a karting track during a family road trip.

“In 2018 we were coming back to Himachal by road and we stopped at Vadodara for one night. There was a 4-stroke karting track there. Shriya and her sister both did around 40-50 laps there. The younger one (Shriya) liked it a lot and told me that she wants to race professionally. That’s when she joined an academy in Bengaluru for professional training,” Shriya’s father Ritesh Lohia recounted.

Shriya was in love with karting and karting loved her back. But bigger and better things were in store for her. She always had dreams of climbing up the motorsports ladder, but what no one was really expecting was that the next big opportunity was just around the corner. 2023 saw the inaugural Indian F4 Championship being held and a surprise call-up eventually saw Shriya enter the world of Formula racing.

The Hyderabad Blackbirds racing team, which is co-owned by actor Akkineni Naga Chaitanya, called her up for a surprise test run in Chennai. And they liked what they saw.

“Shriya did just one day of testing and they decided to put her in the Championship (the inaugural Formula 4 Indian Championship). She did not have (Formula 4) racing gear at that time. We borrowed gear from other drivers. (Also) the switch from karting to Formula 4 is difficult. It’s a completely different machine, with so many controls, different regulations, it wasn’t easy, but somehow she managed,” Ritesh Lohia further said.

The Blackbirds were impressed with her racing skills, but they didn’t have a seat free in any of their cars, which is why Shriya found herself behind the wheel of a Speed Demons Delhi car, a move orchestrated by Racing Promotions Private Limited – the organisers and promoters of the F4 Indian Championship. And at the age of 15 she made her single seater Formula racing debut, becoming the first female driver to qualify for a race in the series and also the first to notch up points, after finishing 10th, among 13 drivers in her race. The other 12 drivers were all boys.

Incredibly, Shriya was called for a test run by the Hyderabad Blackbirds team even before she had her Formula 4 license. Clearly they had heard good things about her. Thankfully the license came in the day after she applied for it.

The challenge: Burning rubber can also burn a hole in the pocket

Shriya has found a team which is helping her climb up the racing ladder and also one that is now sharing the financial burden – for team testing and races. But for motorsport drivers at this level, the monetary backing that sponsors bring in is something that they are always on the lookout for.

“It’s not easy to find sponsors in motorsport. That’s why it takes so long for us athletes. For me, it didn’t take as long which I’m very grateful for. But for any other driver, for all of us, it is a struggle to get sponsors. I’ve seen so many drivers who’ve had their careers stopped midway because of lack of sponsors,” Shriya said.

Finances and family support are two of the biggest stumbling blocks for athletes across the world, especially those who want to walk on the less travelled sports roads. For Shriya though, her family went all out to support her in every way.

It’s no secret that professional car racing is expensive. Most people would think a thousand times before pumping in copious amounts of money, considering the fact that the future in the sport is always uncertain, especially in a country like India, which does not have a rich motorsports culture.

When Shriya participated in the FIA Girls On Track – Rising Stars selections in 2022 she had the backing of JK Tyres. But for everything else her family has been spending their own money for all expenses.

“For the last 5 years (2018-2023) we have been spending from our own pocket. Karting is very expensive. We have to go to places like Malaysia and Italy for training and every time you have to pay from your own pocket. In India we don’t have very many tracks. At that time we had only two (professional) tracks – in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Every time we need to go to Bengaluru for her training and for a Championship, we spend about 6-7 months there. We have to stay at hotels, there is training – it is all very expensive,” Shriya’s father shared.

“In a busy year we spend around Rs 50-60 lakhs minimum only for karting. Formula 4 expenses can run into the crores. It’s very costly.”

It’s not every day that you hear someone put in so much money into backing a child who has expressed a desire to do something on a permanent basis. But Ritesh Lohia never had any doubts about supporting his daughter’s dream.

“People were not happy, asking me why we are spending so much money. But it’s a ladder and you have to start with karting and then climb up the rungs.”

Gender divide: the ever-present Goliath that has to be slayed

Family support – check, finances – check and talent – check. But what about one of the biggest obstacles that female athletes have to face – the ever-prevalent gender divide in sport?

Motorsport is unique that way since male and female drivers compete against each other in most race divisions, including F4, F3 and F2.

Formula One – the pinnacle of motorsport racing is also a mixed gender platform. And yet there hasn’t been a female F1 driver who has started a race since Italy’s Lella Lombardi in Austria in 1976. Only 5 women in total have ever been on a F1 race track. Three of them didn’t qualify for the main race and only two – Lombardi and her compatriot Maria Teresa de Felippa started races. Interestingly though, according to certain reports, as much as 40% of F1 fans are female.

The W-Series, an all-women single-seater racing Championship ran for three seasons, before hitting financial trouble and shutting down.

In 2023 F1 launched an all-female driver category, the F1 Academy to fill that vacuum. The aim is to help young female drivers, between the ages of 16 and 25 in particular, to climb up the rungs of Formula racing. The 5 participating teams are being run by current F2 and F3 teams. Former driver and Team Principal, Susie Wolff, who has a bag full of racing experience, has been put in charge of the F1 academy as Managing Director and reports directly to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali.

In the 2024 season, all 10 F1 teams will be supporting an F1 academy driver, while the other academy drivers will also receive backing from other partners.

The F1 Academy is the only all-female series in motor racing.

For Shriya, the statistics don’t matter. She wants to use every opportunity she gets to prove to the world that a good driver is a good driver, regardless of gender.

“I think generally, for women in motorsport also is a different thing, it’s a different path than with men in motorsports. Because we’ve not had a lot of women representation in motorsport. I want to show people that it’s not about your gender. Because in most sports, it’s been so difficult to show people that women can be just as good as men. For me, right now, I think I am at the perfect age. And if I get the right support, if I get sponsors for a good season, and if I put in my 100% every day on the track, then I think it’s pretty much going to be like, a good path from here.”

Craig Pollock, founder and CEO of former F1 constructor team British American Racing (BAR), which was acquired by Mercedes, has laid the groundwork for what could be a revolutionary new team. In an interview to CNN, Pollock revealed that there will be a 50-50 split between men and women – from the drivers to the people calling the shots. Named ‘Formula Equal’, for obvious reasons, the team could potentially debut in the 2026 season.

‘Every Indian watches cricket, but very few watch motorsports’

The gender divide is being tackled, slowly but steadily. But what about the overall interest in motorsports? In a country like India in particular, though F1 TV viewership is high, not too many people actually go to race tracks to watch young drivers in action.

“Motorsports is not a sport that is taken very seriously in India. Almost every Indian watches the IPL or the Cricket World Cup. But motorsports – there are very few people who actually watch,” Shriya added.

The interest in motorsport and in Formula racing in particular hit a crescendo in India when the country hosted a F1 race for the first time. There’s no doubt that with the Indian GP dropping out of the F1 calendar after three seasons (2011-13), interest in motorsports in the country also nosedived.

“I think for people (in India) to take interest in karting, Formula One would have to make an appearance. I think ever since the downfall of Formula One in India, people have kind of lost interest…Obviously, I’m hoping for a Formula One return” Shriya added.

Regardless of the hurdles and the challenges, athletes know that the thing they really need to focus on is their own game. Shriya’s ultimate aim is to race in Formula One and fly the tricolour high in F1 race tracks across the world. At the time she spoke to us though Shriya was in the middle of her 10th standard pre-board examinations.

At an age when most kids are focussed on school and friends, constant multi-tasking has become Shriya’s life.

Kasha and Noa – world champions who are ’lifting’ themselves up

As Shriya continues to set the race tracks on fire, two teenage girls in Mumbai are flying the Indian flag high in another male dominated sport.

The origins of the sport of Powerlifting can be traced back to ancient Greece, where men would lift stones as a test of their manhood. Schoolgirls Kasha Nia Sachdev and Noa Sara Eappen took up the sport at the age of 8 and 10 respectively and in their own words – the sport changed their lives in more ways than one.

Kasha and Noa are not your average schoolgirls. In June last year the two teenagers won gold medals and shattered world records at the World Powerlifting Championship held in Kyrgyzstan.

Kasha, who was 15 at that time and Noa, who was 13 competed in the ‘Full Powerlifting’ category. This includes disciplines like Squats, Bench Press and Deadlift.

Imagine two such young girls becoming so passionate about a sport like powerlifting and deciding to pursue it with such vigour and enthusiasm that they found themselves on international podiums as world champions.

Lifting heavy weights – ‘No, it does not impede growth spurts!’

But it’s not just the fact that they are champions in a sport usually associated with men that is remarkable about their journeys so far. It’s also their conviction that made them follow their hearts, despite the usual and unsurprising societal reactions.

“The first misconception is that powerlifting is going to injure you and stunt your growth. Especially as a kid and as a girl. Oh my God, the criticism you face is insane. People are saying – ‘oh this will stunt her height.’ Well, thank you very much – I am 6 feet tall, I don’t think any height has been stunted over here,” Kasha said.

“If you follow the proper techniques, if you follow the right methods of progressive overload, which is slowly increasing weight on your fundamental movements – these are the building blocks of healthy lifting – and if you follow these it will not stunt your growth. It will not injure you. There are other sports which people are readily putting their kids in, like rugby, football, which have equal repercussions if not higher repercussions than powerlifting.”

That weight training or any sport in which athletes have to lift heavy weights can impede growth spurts is something that many parents would have been told. It’s a common refrain. But these two girls and their families decided to take all the criticism and backlash head-on.

“When I started a lot of people said that I would become bulky and since I am a girl, powerlifting wasn’t a good idea. But what I have realised is that since it’s such a male dominated sport and since it’s not something that not many girls take up, it becomes that much more rewarding,” 14 year old Noa said.

“From age 12 onwards is when I started taking the sport really seriously and I grew from 5 feet to 6 feet tall by the time I was 15. Strenuous sports are proven to boost your growth hormones due to the endorphins that are released, post training. It also strengthens your tissues and your bones. Neither of my parents are 6 feet tall. This can be taken as an example that powerlifting can help you grow taller.” Kasha added.

The ‘power’ of ’lifting’: How Kasha and Noa’s lives changed

In the World Powerlifting Championship in Kyrgyzstan last year, Kasha lifted a total of 198.5 kgs in the Full Powerlifting event (3 disciplines combined) to set new world records in the Teen-1 Female, under 75 category. Noa lifted 210 kgs combined in the same event to clinch the gold and set a new world record in the Teen-1 Female, under 60 kg category.

Much like Shriya, Kasha and Noa also made giant strides in their sport once they decided to give it their everything. The journey for both Kasha and Noa began in a gym in Mumbai.

Kasha was suffering from a condition called genu-valgum, more commonly known as ‘knock-knees’. It’s a common lower leg abnormality, part of the coronal plane deformities of the lower extremity. It gives the appearance of the knees touching each other, while the ankles are apart. Her father, Nicholai, a powerlifter himself, was told that lifting weights could help her and he began taking an 8-year old Kasha to the gym.

The sight of such a young girl lifting weights raised quite a few eyebrows of course, but the Sachdev’s carried on undaunted. And the result seemed almost miraculous to many. Though she had to undergo a growth modulation surgery for her condition, lifting weights helped strengthen the muscles around the knees, like the quadriceps, the hamstrings and the calves. That helped her squat – an essential aspect of powerlifting.

Overall, the change Kasha experienced was almost cathartic – physically, mentally and emotionally.

“Powerlifting taught me how to take up space. As a kid I was always really afraid to take up space. I was a big kid, I was heavier than average, I was taller than average. I always stuck out in class photos and I always thought of how much space I took up. When I walked into the gym, I learnt how to occupy space, how to talk to people. I feel like I learnt most of my social skills at the gym, talking to people there. I gained a second home at the gym. I learnt that I can be who I am. That I am allowed to dance and be stupid in the gym. That I am allowed to take up space – that is something that I have to credit to the sport,” Kasha shared.

A crisis of confidence is perhaps one of the most common things that restrict a young person’s overall growth. It not only holds them back in social settings, but also stops them from realising their full potential.

Noa, who goes to the same school as Kasha, joined the gym at the age of 10 and began training with her school senior. It wasn’t surprising to hear from her that she too struggled with confidence issues. And powerlifting – a sport that is synonymous with big, muscular men – is what helped this young lady become a more well-rounded and confident individual.

“I was very shy, not confident at all. I was very reserved. Starting powerlifting was so incredible, because it made me so much more outgoing, more confident about myself ,” Noa said.

Family support and adding ‘weight’ to their ambitions

Kasha’s father, Nicholai is a champion powerlifter himself. He has won the National Championship and bagged two medals – a gold in Bench Press and a silver in Deadlift – at the World Championships in Kyrgyzstan last year. And it was under his mentorship that Kasha and Noa began to power lift.

Since the two teenagers took to the sport like fish to water, they were buoyed by the confidence boost that the sport gave them and they really began to shine.

At the Pro League World Championship in Bengaluru in May last year, Kasha won 5 gold medals in different disciplines in her weight category (under-75 kg), while setting new records. Noa, competing in the under-60 kg category meanwhile also won 5 golds and set new records in all disciplines.

Though powerlifting is what gave them wings, it was inevitable that the two girls would start focussing on the next step. And for them that was weightlifting. The two have started taking the first few baby steps in weightlifting, with the hope of representing the country on the biggest international stages some day.

But early on, Kasha learnt what could be a very valuable lesson going forward.

“It was a good beginning, we both caught up pretty fast. I learned the movements really quickly and Noa was showing immediate strength in the sport. But unfortunately I suffered a little bit of a knee injury because of overuse and overtraining because I jumped into weightlifting with the same vigour that I had (shown in) powerlifting.

“Weightlifting is a little bit more physically demanding. We had been training for about two months when I began showing depletion in strength and recovery. And so right now, I’m just focusing on rehab and really just fixing myself so I can rebuild, restart, and resume weightlifting. So yeah, I feel like that was rather challenging. And also being injured is extremely challenging for someone who’s never been injured before and for someone who relies on their sport for a lot of their confidence and identity.”

Injuries are a very real concern and so it’s not surprising that even though he is not the girls’ weightlifting trainer, Nicholai finds himself right next to them in the gym, as they receive weightlifting training from former Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Ponnuswamy Rangaswamy.

“He (Rangaswamy) trains them, but I support his training. So I am with them through the training to see that the cues are followed, because I understand how both my girls function on a mental level with the weights, so whether it’s motivational or it’s constantly giving them cues that they will understand, I am with them,” says Nicholai.

Both girls seem to have read the cues they have received so far in their lifting careers and are very clear about what they are striving for. While the transition to weightlifting might have been a fairly obvious one, they know that the road ahead is one that could have unexpected twists and turns.

“It (weightlifting) is definitely something I would like to stick with. But, you know, sometimes your brain and your body don’t align. And suppose I’m not meant for the sport sometime down the line then, of course, there are always different things to venture into. But I would really like to stick to the thing. And I think I can make it if I hold out,” says Kasha.

“I’m very much determined to compete in Championships – in the commonwealth and even hopefully, the Olympics. So of course, there’s no telling when or if we ever want to switch (to something else) or anything but right now I’m definitely giving all my energy to weightlifting. And I hope to be able to participate and even win or rank in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games,” Noa said.

What about those who aren’t as lucky as Kasha and Noa?

Shriya, Kasha and Noa have been very fortunate to have families that have encouraged them to follow their dreams and have an overall support system that they thrive on. But there are many athletes in the country and across the world who don’t know who to turn to for support and help, especially when it comes to pursuing the slightly more ’niche’ sports.

“One thing is for more corporates and federations to support athletes, not just financially, but also long term so that they have a secure future. Also for sponsors and corporates to build better infrastructure – have better gyms and talent scouts to make access to the sport (powerlifting) easier,” Noa opined about her sport.

In many ways the sporting ecosystem in India and in many other similar countries, which don’t have a natural sporting culture that kids take to from a young age, is still being built. Sport is still seen as a very risky career choice by most parents and there’s merit in that thought process. Afterall, there’s no guarantee of steady income even if an athlete is very successful. Not every sport has a high income bracket. Alternate professional skillsets therefore become a must – a safety net of sorts that athletes can fall back on.

For the young and fearless though, their confidence is unwavering.

“Athletes put in so much effort – physically, mentally and emotionally – and it (sport) is not seen as a viable career choice, which I think is ridiculous,” said Kasha.

And it’s that delightful gumption that we should all support, in our own unique ways.

(Akaash is a former Sports Editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is also a features writer, a VO artist and a stage actor)