Beauty Dungdung: Watching from the sidelines, itching to return to the spotlight after knee injury, father’s death | Hockey News

A professional sporting career can be a fickle pursuit. One day you are flying high, and on another everything can come crashing down. Emerging hockey player Beauty Dungdung knows it better than most.Hailing from Simdega – the remote drict in Jharkhand that has already given India some gems like Salima Tete and Sangita Kumari – Beauty’s journey was already a challenging one, but one she thought she had managed to navigate. Born in a family of hockey lovers, there was no doubt as to what the path in front of her was. She was only 19 when she was called up to play for the senior team at the FIH Nations Cup in 2022, a tournament that India won impressively in Spain. Her performances have caught the eye of head coach Janneke Schopman, who has called her a special talent.
However, things took a downward turn during training in February. “I never expected that I would get such a big knee injury,” Beauty tells The Indian Express on the sidelines of the Asian Champions Trophy, where she is with the squad as a reserve player. “It happened one day in training when we were playing a match. ‘Kutt’ karke ek aawaz aaya tha. Bahut zyada dil mein takleef hui. I cried so much that day, and even the coaches were crying with me.”

The injury to her left knee needed surgery and it was clear to Beauty that she faced a long spell on the sidelines. She made peace with it, adding how it taught her to bounce back after a low. When she trains or plays, Beauty comes across as a cheerful youngster. She saw a silver lining.
But as she was stepping up her rehab, more heartbreak was around the corner.
“Just when I started running after my rehab, my father had an accident,” Beauty recalls. “So I had to come to Jharkhand for a week and be with him. Then I returned to the camp. Two weeks passed. Then…,” she pauses, as the smile fades. “…father ki death ho gayi. That period was very difficult for me. It was hard to keep myself mentally prepared.”
Ambrose Dungdung and his wife Nilima sacrificed a lot to aid Beauty’s rise. With three elder brothers, Beauty was the youngest of the family but has come the furthest in terms of a hockey career, helped massively coach Pratima Barwa in Simdega.
When pointed out that she seems very happy-go-lucky on the outside but has a lot going on inside her, she agrees. “Aise hi hoon mein. Strong hona padta hai, kuch khoya toh kuch milega. I know I will get something good. I have belief in myself that I will recover, and I will play again. Papa ka dream tha, mein Olympics khelungi. He wanted to see that. I will fulfill that dream,” she adds, as the tears flow again.
The support system has kept the 20-year-old going. “Backing of my family has been important. It’s been painful but I can share things with them. I speak mostly with my mummy, she is not keeping well either. Coach Janneke is a massive support. During my injury, she called me almost every day and kept up with my progress. She has improved our team a lot too.”
Smiles return on the turf
It is evident that her truly happy space is on the hockey field. On Saturday, with only the reserves training in the morning, she was in her element in a two-hour session. With assant coach Anthony Farry pinging aerial balls from midfield, Beauty enthusiastically peels away, looking to sneak in a goal, as if she has got one over her “opponents” on the day – Sharmila Devi and Vaishnavi Phalke, the other two reserves.
There are some hits, and some misses. The session seems to be largely focused on testing her reaction times and how quickly she can reset in attack… which is what her career needs now, so to speak.Most Read
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In the evening during the matches, the three reserves sit in the stands to watch the action. “We see the gameplay, whether our decisions are working… we have to note it down. And then we have to go tell the coaches about it. This is like a homework assignment, because I want to learn more and more,” Beauty adds, the smile now back.
Three Jharkhand players are in action for India in Ranchi, and while that fills Beauty with pride, there is also a little bit of longing that she isn’t out there playing. “Because whenever we miss a goal or big chance, I think to myself: ‘agar mein hoti toh, yeh cheez kar leti’,” she says cheekily.
But ultimately, as she now sits on the sidelines, the focus is on donning the Indian blues again. “I am so close to making it back to the team now, I can feel it. I believe I am getting back to my best. I shouldn’t let pain hold me back.”