On Thursday, Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand created history as she set the new national record in Women’s 100m dash. Clocking a stupendous 11.33 seconds in the event at the Federation Cup National Athletics held in New Delhi, she bettered the previous quickest timing of 11.38 seconds set in 2000 by Rachita Mistry.
Embroiled in controversies that had her banned from participating in any sporting event just a year back, hers is an inspiring account of grit, passion and spirit.
Here are 10 facts that you need to know about the 20-year-old Indian athlete, Dutee Chand:
1) Currently the national champion in Women’s 100m sprint, Dutee has missed the required mark of 11.32 seconds for Rio Olympics qualification by the thinnest perceivable margin of one-hundredth of a second.
2) Born into a poverty-stricken family of weavers on 3 February 1996, in Gopalpur of Odisha, she is the third among seven siblings. She had also taken admission into KIIT University in 2013 to pursue legal studies.
3) Dutee Chand had first stormed into the fray of promising Indian athletes with a record-breaking 11.8 seconds timing at the national under-18 competition in 2012.
4) 2013 was the most eventful year of her career during which she first won bronze in the 200m event at the Asian Championships in Pune, and then went on to become the national champion in both the 100m and 200m events at the National Senior Athletics Championships in Ranchi.
5) In 2013, she also became the first Indian sprinter to reach the final at a global athletics event, at the World Youth Championships.
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6) Her remarkable talent and potential had moved director general Jiji Thomson of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to hail her as India’s ‘sure-shot Olympic medallist’ of the future.
7) Merely a few days before the Glasgow Commonwealth Games of 2014, where she looked certain to achieve podium glory for India, her sporting career took the worst hit when she failed a controversial ‘hyperandrogenism’ test which led to her immediate suspension from any form of competitive running.
8) Instead of going for the suggested ‘correctional’ procedures, a defiant Dutee challenged the discriminatory verdict of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) which was in-line with IAAF’s guidelines on the matter.
9) In her cause, she found support from her compatriot Santhi Soundarajan and a host of protestors worldwide. An online campaign by the title ‘LetDuteeRun’ was also organised where petitions voicing opinions in her favour poured in from everywhere.
10) On 27 July 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the unsound ‘hyperandrogenism’ regulations of the IAAF, thus paving the way for Dutee to finally stage a rigorous comeback into the athletes’ arena.
