Dutee Chand: From running barefoot to becoming national champion

Dutee Chand (born 3 February 1996) is an Indian professional sprinter. At a very young age, Chand was encouraged to take up sports by her sister and currently she is national champion in the women's 100 metres event.

Coming from a not so strong financial background, Chand never had many career options to pursue but she believes that following her passion with true spirit has always lead her to the right path.

Her zodiac sign is Aquarius. She was born in the Jajpur District of Odisha. She did her schooling from a local school of Chaka Gopalpur Village, Odisha. She then went on to pursue her Bachelor of Laws from the KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar in 2013.

When she entered college, she was noticed by the team coaches, and she was then trained for college events. She won many events during her college at the state level as well as the national level.

She move to Patiala later for advanced training. She later moved to Hyderabad for her training at the Pullela Gopichand Academy. She got trained under Coach N Ramesh and used to train amongst boys which made her extremely confident. Dutee gives all the credit for her success to her sister Saraswati.

From running barefoot to becoming the current national champion in women’s 100 metres, she had her own set of struggles.

Dutee Chand first broke into the scene by becoming a national champion in the under-18 category in the 100m event in 2012. This was followed by impressive displays at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships, the World Youth Championships and the National Senior Athletics Championships at Ranchi. And with two gold medals at the 2014 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Taipei, she was set to take her first significant step in her international career.

Dutee Chand had grabbed headlines by becoming the first Indian female athlete in 36 years to qualify for the 100m event at the Olympics at Rio 2016, by breaching the then Olympic qualifying mark of 11.32 seconds.

Medals won by Dutee Chand:

Gold
• In 200 m at the 2014 Taipei Asian Junior Athletics Championships
• In 4×400 m at the 2014 Taipei Asian Junior Athletics Championships
• In 100 m at the 2019 XXX Summer Universiade, held in Naples, Italy

Silver
• In 100 m at the 2016 Guwahati South Asian Games
• In 100 m at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games
• In 200 m at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games

Bronze
• In 200 m at the 2013 Pune Asian Championships
• In 200 m at the 2016 Guwahati South Asian Games
• In 100 m at the 2017 Bhubaneswar Asian Championships
• In 4×100 m at the 2017 Bhubaneswar Asian Championships
• In 200 m at the 2019 Doha Asian Championships.

Post Supreme Court of India’s historic decision of decriminalising gay sex (the decision was ruled in 2018), Dutee publicly revealed that she is in a same-sex relationship. Dutee, hence became the first sportsperson in India to openly acknowledge being gay. Things didn’t turn out to be so peaceful for her. She faced a revolt within the family and localities from the village she belonged to.  

Dutee Chand’s career has been full of hiccups. Right from being banned in 2014 to facing backlash from people very close after she revealed her same-sex relationship, Dutee has shown an incredible resilience which is a quality which a very few possess. Dutee’s is a glorious story through troubled waters which everyone should know.