Body-shamed at school, Hyderabadi girl reaches Ironman World Championship
HYDERABAD: Hyderabadi girl Sanjana Reddy, who represented the country in the Ironman World Championship, is a story of extraordinary athletic grit. Her journey from a Hyderabad classroom to Kona, Hawai‘i, also highlights the body-shaming and societal pressures that drive nearly half of the world’s girls away from sports during adolescence.
In a social media post, the 22-year-old triathlete described a formative experience at Delhi Public School, where a teacher singled her out for her physique and questioned her running ability. In ninth grade, after games periods were replaced with math lessons, Reddy and two other girls were called for athletics practice. Instead of encouragement, she faced humiliation.
“I remember the teacher singled me out, looked me up and down, and went, ‘Oh, you can also run, ’” Reddy recalls. The implication was clear: her physique, being “bigger” than the two other girls, made her an unlikely runner in the teacher’s eyes.
“I was deeply hurt and honestly quite embarrassed,” she admits. “I still remember that day like it happened yesterday.”
That moment became a turning point. “Guess who’s still running?” she asks, letting her achievements speak for themselves. A former CBSE national-level swimmer who trained at Hyderabad’s Gachibowli Stadium, Reddy discovered triathlon in early 2023 while studying Economics at the University of Birmingham.
Sanjana Reddy speaks out against body-shaming in sports
Reddy’s experience underscores a global issue that is 49% of girls worldwide drop out of sports during adolescence. She sees body-shaming as a key factor driving this trend. “When we are body shamed, appearance quickly overshadows ability, leading to a loss of confidence,” she explains. “Sport soon becomes a stage for judgment rather than competence or enjoyment.”
She emphasizes that adolescence, a particularly vulnerable time, should foster strength and resilience through sport. Instead, a harmful narrative persists. “If the narrative is always about what the body looks like rather than what it can do, it adds further barriers to entry,” Reddy states. “This is a crisis.”
She now uses her platform to advocate for a shift in perspective. “We have to start emphasising sport as a platform where everybody is valued for how much they can challenge themselves and not how they look!” she asserts.
Her message is directed especially at those in positions of influence, such as teachers. “People should realize that there is a real person on the other end of their dialogue. A little thought before opening their mouths is not that difficult to do.”
She highlights the harm caused when teachers and other authority figures comment on young athletes’ bodies. “I just think that is so wild,” she says, emphasizing how such attitudes worsen the challenges girls face in sports.
