With the historic moment for Jammu and Kashmir, volleyball team raised the championship trophy in ‘7th Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG)’ in Bihar. This astounding accomplishment, and the boxing triumph, should not just be viewed as another win in sport, but again should be a testament to the sacrifice, dedication, and untapped potential of sport within Jammu & Kashmir’s youth.
The Khelo India Youth Games, a vehicle in which to showcase, develop and nurture youth has only flickered a few candles of hope for Jammu & Kashmir in the past. But this volleyball win, somewhat of an oddity, shines as a credible and ripe moment in the region’s long and developing collective journey in team based sport.
With champions forged through hard work, grit and teamwork, these players demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that J&K does produce world class heroes, whose avenues of opportunity, and structural support are less tangible yet who can still line up at the starting blocks.
This accomplishment is testament to the unifying and transformative impact sport has to enable youth ambition.
Such an incredible win should give the authorities and governing bodies an extra reason to fund the grassroot system even further so that a greater number of young kids can have a chance to rise and flourish.
More so, such an accomplishment is a huge testament to the Khelo India Program. The Khelo India programs have provided the funding behind the talents in J&K. They have become highly organized in their search and development of sporting youngsters.
J&K can use this as a launch pad to achieve a higher level of recognition at the National level of sporting achievement.
As we embrace this prestigious victory, we should also promise to cultivate the next generation of sporting stars from the Union Territory.
As communities we need to work together, government, private sector, and locally as a community in order to develop better training conditions, coaching and more exposure in competitions for these upcoming talented kids.
The gold moment for the volleyball team shouldn’t be a one-off result but a start to a new era of J & K sporting opportunities.
