What does it take to keep going when everything around you — the sport, the culture, the system — says this isn't your place?
At the age of 13, Naina Adhikari made her way to the Ganga River, 300 km from her home village to start learning how to whitewater kayak. She couldn't swim, and was the only girl on the river with no female mentors to turn to. Although she faced many obstacles, she persisted.
Naina has since represented India at the World Championships and Olympic qualifiers, won the Ganga Kayak Festival twice, and founded Ganga Girls and the Pravahini Foundation, projects that train Indian female kayakers, and that bring survivors of human trafficking to the river, and to paddling, to experience freedom, strength, and community.
This is a conversation for anyone who has ever had to find their footing in a world that wasn't built for them.
In this episode:
The real off-river challenges of being the only woman in a male-dominated sport inside a traditional culture
What Naina had to navigate alone, and why she stayed anyway
The story behind Ganga Girls and Project Shakti
What big volume water on the Ganga teaches about presence and showing up every day
Naina's legacy word is "revolutionary." After listening, you'll understand why.
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