From Picking Up Vegetables On The Road To Running For India's Glory - Dutee Chand Has Battled Adversity Head On
She is an inspiration.
Dutee Chand made headlines when she came out on her sexuality. She found a lot of support from fans and sportspersons on her courage. But there is more to her than just this revelation. Dutee has been running India to glory for some time now. She is only 23, well in her prime.
She is the first Indian to win gold at the Universiade. The time clocked was 11.32 seconds in the 100m race. 2018 saw her win silver in the Asian Games in the same event and that was our first medal in the event since 1998.
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Dutee also has a silver in the 200m in the same event. Add to that four bronze medals in the Asian Championships, along with a bronze in the Asian Indoor Athletic Championships and 2 gold medals at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships. Now that is a lot of medals to ignore.
But life was not so easy for Dutee as a kid. She came from an impoverished family. In the recent episode of KBC which she attended with Hima Das and Virender Sehwag, she revealed how that at times due to there being no food she would pick up vegetables that fell from vendor shops.
One person visibly moved by her story was the host Amitabh Bachchan. When he asked if people thronged in large numbers to watch her run, she had an honest answer.
No Sir, there are very few Indians who attend our events¡± while adding, ¡°Sir, in my opinion, there is only one sport which is religiously followed in India and that is cricket. No matter where people play cricket, it automatically attracts a crowd. However, that is not the case with athletes. We barely find this support. The common notion is, that our event gets over in 10-15 seconds whereas people are more engaged with a tournament which lasts for at least a couple of hours. I would just like to say that being an athlete, for those 11 to 15 seconds that we run at sporting events, we practice hard for 365 days. When you play as a team, the teams¡¯ victory is your victory. But as an athlete, in case we suffer an injury, we don¡¯t get to participate at all. Therefore, when the public cheers for us, we feel motivated and inspired to perform better. We play for the country and our only motive is to make our country proud," she said.
Her struggle against life has made her stronger and we need to be there for her. Big B too brought that up.
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¡°I feel that when our athletes represent our country in a foreign land, more and more Indians should visit these events to cheer for them, because it only adds to their confidence and motivates them further,¡± he said.
So it is time to stand behind those like her. They have fought all odds and are doing our country proud. The least we can do is be there for them and support them to the end.
With the 2021 Olympics around the corner, she will be going gor glory
