When a women’s team loses heavily, the scoreboard becomes the easiest thing to discuss. Runs, goals, timings and margins are all visible. They can be counted, compared and criticised. What is harder to see is everything that happened before that result. The ground a player trained on. The coach she did or did not have. The tournaments she missed because there was no funding. The family that had to arrange transport. The club that could not afford daily practice. The federation that chose which event mattered enough to pay for.

In sport, results rarely arrive suddenly. They are built over years of training, match exposure, fitness work, coaching, nutrition, recovery and building the confidence that comes from competing regularly. This is where the gap in women’s sport becomes clear. Pakistan does not lack girls who want to play. What it lacks is a system that keeps them in sport long enough, supports them properly enough, and exposes them to competition often enough for that talent to mature.

For swimmer Kiran Khan, the result is only the final line of a much longer process. “People usually only see the final result or the medal, but they don’t see the years of preparation behind it,” she said. “Swimming is one of the most demanding sports. It requires multiple hours of training every day, strength and conditioning, proper nutrition, recovery, mental preparation, and consistent access to quality facilities.”

That gap is not limited to swimming, or to cricket, where recent results have again brought women’s sport into conversation. Across football, badminton, swimming and other sports, women athletes in Pakistan are still fighting for the things stronger sporting systems treat as basic: regular competitions, safe facilities, professional coaching, fitness support, sponsorship, visibility and a pathway that does not break after school. At its core, the real tragedy of women’s sport in Pakistan isn’t losing a match—it’s how hard athletes have to fight just to get to the game.

Where girls start dropping out

The problem does not begin at the national level. It begins much earlier, when a girl starts playing a sport in school or joins a club, and then the questions begin at home. What will come out of this? Is there a future in sport? Who will pay for travel and kit? Is the ground safe? How will she get there every day?

These are not small questions. Many families still do not see enough examples of women athletes who have turned sport into a stable career. There are also players who leave because they do not get opportunities, or because selection is not always seen as fair. When the road ahead looks uncertain, families often push girls towards studies, work or marriage instead.

For Sadia Sheikh, a coach who has spent years working with girls and women in football, keeping girls in sport is much harder than bringing them to the field. For her, the main reasons are family pressure, money and the lack of a clear future.

“After matric or intermediate, families tell girls to focus on studies or get married,” she said. “If you’re married and have kids, people assume you can’t play anymore. And if there’s no sponsorship or stipend, how do you afford travel, kit, ground rent? Talent alone can’t pay bills.”

Facilities make that decision even harder. If parents see a proper ground, separate timings, toilets, changing rooms and safe transport, they are more likely to allow their daughters to continue. If the setup is not clear, sport becomes harder to defend at home.

Sadia said women footballers are still adjusting to whatever space they can find.

“We don’t have proper grounds,” she said. “We share grounds, we play on patches of grass, we play early morning just to avoid crowds. What we really need are women-only timings or women-only grounds. In this heat, we also need indoor facilities. Right now we’re always adjusting.”

The problem is not only the ground. Many clubs do not have enough equipment for girls, while proper coaching is also limited. Sadia said girls rarely get tactical analysis, goalkeeper coaching or fitness plans. At times, clubs have to turn girls away because they do not have enough balls, kits or cones.

Transport then becomes a hurdle. Parents worry about public transport, late timings, unfamiliar routes and what people will say. “If your family backs you, you can go far,” Sadia said. “If they don’t, you stop after Grade 10.”

That is why many girls leave before they are fully tested. Not because they lack talent, but because there are not enough matches, not enough women-only spaces, not enough money, and not enough reasons for families to believe that continuing is worth it.

Reaching the top is not enough

For many athletes, reaching the national level is the ultimate achievement. In reality, that is where the next struggle begins.

By that stage, hard work alone is not enough. An athlete needs better coaching, proper fitness plans, regular competition and exposure to opponents who are already competing at a higher standard. In sports outside cricket, funding is often limited, which means fewer camps, fewer international events and fewer chances to test oneself abroad.

“I don’t believe Pakistan lacks talent,” swimmer Kiran Khan said. “We have many talented young swimmers. The real gap lies in infrastructure, professional coaching, funding, sports science support, and regular international exposure.”

Although access to pools has improved over the years, Kiran says the bigger issue now is high-performance coaching. Many former athletes move into coaching, but competitive experience alone does not automatically make someone a good coach.

“Coaching is a profession that requires ongoing learning, sports science knowledge, and athlete development skills,” she said. “Pakistan needs to invest much more in developing world-class coaches if we want to produce world-class swimmers.”

That point goes beyond swimming. At international level, the difference is often in the details: how an athlete trains, how mistakes are corrected, how fitness is built and how often she competes against better opponents.

Cost of competing

For many women athletes, the first sponsor is not a company or a federation, it is her family.

In individual sports, especially, families often have to manage what the system cannot fully cover. Families arrange money, speak to sponsors, pay for equipment and, in some cases, help send their daughters abroad for training or competition. Athletes may get access to basic training facilities, including spaces available through the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) but travel, participation and exposure often require personal funds.

Competitive swimming carries a heavy private cost. “Families often bear the costs of coaching, pool access, swimsuits, goggles, training equipment, nutrition, travel, accommodation, and competition expenses,” said Kiran. “Competitive swimming is an expensive sport, and financial limitations often prevent talented athletes from reaching their full potential.”

That financial burden affects who gets to stay in sport. Talent may bring a girl into the pool, the ground or the court, but money often decides how far she can go.

What the state can afford

The official side of the story begins with the same problem athletes and coaches point to: money. There is not enough of it, and whatever is available has to be stretched across too many sports, federations, camps, salaries, facilities and international commitments.

But funding is only one part of the problem. How that money is planned, distributed and used is just as important. At the grassroots level, much of the control rests with provincial sports bodies after the 18th Amendment. The PSB’s plays more of a role at the national and elite level, when athletes are preparing for international representation. That leaves a gap between where talent first appears and where national support begins.

According to Shahid Islam, Deputy Director General at the PSB, there are currently two women on the 11-member PSB board. “Directions have also been issued to federations to ensure 33 percent female representation among officials,” he said.

He added that a policy proposal focused on female sports, esports and para athletes has been submitted to the ministry and is currently under consideration. “The proposal was first submitted to the Prime Minister, after which PSB was instructed to include other stakeholders as well, including the Pakistan Olympic Association and educational institutions,” he informed.

For Islam, schools and colleges are central to reviving sport for girls. “The revival of sports is only possible when there is a revival of sports in educational institutions,” he said.

He said educational institutions need to revive sports activities and encourage girls to take up different sports. “Without that, Pakistan cannot build a wider talent pool,” he added.

He also acknowledged that social barriers remain stronger in some parts of the country, including areas such as Quetta and Bannu, where girls get very few chances to participate in sport compared to cities such as Karachi.

On funding, Islam was clear that the available resources are limited. “The funds are not as much as they should be,” he said.

According to him, the PSB receives around Rs1.34 billion to Rs1.5 billion annually. That amount covers training camps, foreign trainers, participation in international competitions, salaries and maintenance.

Islam said countries with stronger systems are able to ensure participation in many international events. Pakistan, with limited resources, has to focus on major commitments such as the Asian Games, South Asian Games, Olympics and continental championships.

“In our case, the whole budget is consumed by these commitments,” he said.

Islam said the PSB has also been asked to explore public-private partnerships and different revenue models to reduce pressure on government funding. One such model is membership at PSB facilities. “The board generated around Rs23 million through this model when it started in 2021. By 2025–26, that figure had increased to around Rs110 million. The PSB is also working with federations to introduce league systems, starting with football for both men and women, as leagues can help federations raise their own funds,” he said.

That leaves athletes in many sports depending on limited government support, personal funds or private sponsorship. Some federations, such as hockey, have been able to attract support for international participation, while football also receives international funding. But most federations still depend heavily on the state, and the money is rarely enough to build the kind of year-round system athletes need.

Media moments

Women’s sport in Pakistan is often treated as if it has no audience. But an audience is not built in silence.

If girls do not get enough facilities, regular competitions or proper platforms, their sport remains hidden. When it remains hidden, fewer people watch it. When fewer people watch it, media houses and sponsors say there is not enough interest. The cycle then repeats itself.

Sadia has seen this in football. She said women’s matches rarely get the kind of attention that can build players into recognisable names.

“The media covers us once, then forgets,” she said. “Sponsorship for women is almost non-existent. Even national players have to coach kids to fund their own tournaments. If companies and TV channels supported us like they do men’s cricket, things would change fast.”

She said even within women’s football, visibility is uneven. A few clubs get attention, while many others continue working without coverage, sponsorship or public recognition.

Kiran said women’s swimming has improved in visibility over the years, but still needs far more media coverage and sponsorship. For her, attention is not only about celebrating athletes after they win. It also helps bring investment into training and encourages younger girls to take up sport.

Without that visibility, the burden again shifts back to athletes and families. They train, compete and fund themselves quietly, and only become visible when there is a medal, a controversy or a disappointing result. By then, the years of preparation, or the lack of it, have already shaped what people are watching.

The real match

For women athletes in Pakistan, the hardest contest is not always the one people see.

It begins much earlier, in a school where sport is no longer taken seriously, in a club that cannot afford proper equipment, in a ground shared with too many others, in a home where parents still worry about safety, transport and what people will say.

It continues when an athlete reaches the national level and still has to think about coaching, travel, diet, recovery, exposure and who will pay for the next competition. By the time she stands on the field, court or pool deck, a lot has already been decided.

That is why the question cannot only be why women athletes are not winning more. It also has to be what they are being given before they are expected to win.

Sadia put it simply: “Talent is there. We just need the system to believe in us too.”