Meet Bilquis Mir, the Kashmiri water sports athlete set to be an Olympics jury member

Around six months ago, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) informed Bilquis Mir—a water sports athlete from Kashmir—that she would be the first Indian woman to serve as a jury member at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.

Ecstatic, she says, "I am very happy, but a lot of hard work has gone into reaching here. Additionally, this role comes with a huge responsibility of conducting fair competition. But I will be representing my country there, and I am proud about that."

Mir is a seasoned kayaking and canoeing player, coach, and international judge. She is considered the first woman water sports professional from the Kashmir valley. 

“I couldn't fulfil my dream of going to the Olympics as an athlete, but I made it as a judge,” she says.

A childhood dream

Mir wanted to become a boxer since childhood; her parents recall how she used to keep punching a tree.

However, everything changed at the age of 7 when she visited a water sports class in Dal Lake with her friend. The coach asked her to either sit in the nearby park or join the other students. Without wasting a minute, she decided to join the students.

“That day changed my life. Though I was having a hard time balancing the boat, I knew I had found something I wanted to do again and again,” she adds.

As she returned home from class in wet clothes, her parents scolded her as the society in Kashmir, especially at that time, was conservative about girls playing sports. In fact, she would miss her coaching classes to attend water sports classes.

Mir had found her calling, and she did not stop.

In 1997, she participated in a domestic tournament and won a medal. 

“For women, the struggle begins from their doorstep. My parents were happy but also very angry,” she adds.

She recalls that it took her 15 days to convince her parents to let her focus on water sports. 

“Back then, there was hardly any awareness about sports, let alone canoeing or kayaking. Additionally, women were not playing or having a sports career. So, it took time for my parents to understand, but they did come around eventually,” she tells HerStory.

Soon, she started participating in various canoeing competitions. 

Mir has represented Jammu and Kashmir in 12 national competitions. She competed in the ICF Sprint Racing World Cup in Kayaking and Canoeing in Szeged, Hungary, in 2009. She also represented India in the Asian Championships in 2007 and 2008.

In 2007, Mir began her coaching career in the Indian Camp—a year-long canoeing and kayaking training camp set in different parts of the country. She continued coaching till 2013 and later returned to Jammu and Kashmir. In 2011, she also became the head coach of the Indian women’s team, consisting of kayaking and canoeing players.  

In 2020, the Asian Canoe Federation selected Mir as a judge for the 18th Asian Games Canoe Sprint in Indonesia. She was a jury member for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in September 2023.

Mir believed young athletes should not face the challenges she had seen in her career. Therefore, after returning to Kashmir, she started offering kayaking and canoeing lessons to the local young athletes. 

She says that almost 110 students under her guidance have won national competitions from the state.

“I realised the hard way how important guidance and support are for a player. One needs encouragement and hand-holding, which I did not receive, so I wanted to provide that for young athletes,” she adds.

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Beating the odds

Mir’s journey has been full of struggles.

As a Kashmiri girl, it was difficult for her to choose sports as a career. She recalls people commenting, ‘She will spoil other girls’ or ‘You are a girl, how can you play?’

The bias did not leave her side even after years of practice and achievements.

Mir vividly remembers the day she became a coach and was assigned to the men's team.

“People laughed and doubted if I could train them,” she says, adding, “But I believe that if you know your subject well, no one can beat you.”

Mir’s mother, too, also bore the brunt.

“People would tell her that Mir would tarnish the name of Kashmir. She had to hear all these things,” she adds.

Amid all the discouraging comments, Mir reveals that she felt like giving up, but her mother motivated her to not quit.

“She told me not to give up because I will not just fail me but those young women who aspired to dream and become something in life,” Mir says.

In the same vein, she emphasises that she did not have the resources, support, and role models to follow when she started her career—reasons that kept her from reaching the Olympics.

Now, she believes, times are changing.

Women are coming forward in sports and making India proud in various games. In fact, as a jury member—in a male-dominated space—is a testament to the increasing women’s representation in decision-making roles.

“Women can do anything if they set their minds to it. They should not give up but fight back and step out of their comfort zones to create a bright future,” she says.