On the day India was glued to television sets watching the first semi-final match of 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup between India and New Zealand, a 23-year-old woman from Odisha was sprinting history several miles away in Italian town of Napoli. Of course, the event wasn’t live on any of Indian sports channels.
The Indian batting squad collapsed like a pack of cards, as if in a mad rush to return to the dressing room. It was all live. Ravindra Jadeja nearly pulled it off with his valiant knock of 77 from 59 balls, probably his best as he took India closer to the target in a 240-run chase from an improbable situation. Jadeja with MS Dhoni added 106 for the 7th wicket.
India went down by 18 runs to New Zealand in the clash that lasted two days owing to inclement weather in Manchester.
The country began to talk about Dhoni’s future plans amid speculation that the 38-year-old former captain might retire from international cricket. The wicketkeeper-batsman had an average World Cup, scoring a 50 in the semifinal loss.
The former captain, who led India to two world titles, has been facing severe criticism for his waning finishing skills with the bat.
The country of cricket lovers was too engrossed in the match to notice developments in sports elsewhere. It was mourning India’s crumbling defeat when the official Twitter handle of International University Sports Federation, the governing body for World University Sport (@FISU) posted a video of 100m race in Napoli.
Dutee Chand became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal in the 100m race at a global event as she sped past her competitors, most of them taller than her, to win the race at the World University Games (for students between 17 and 28 years) taking place from July 3 to July 14.
Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds, a bit slower than her national record of 11.26 seconds but the forces she has battled in last few years are bigger than her on-track competition at the Summer Universiade.
A couple of months ago, Dutee was criticized extensively by her own family members for coming out and revealing her homosexuality, a bold step that made her the first Indian athlete to declare themselves as gay.
Family members, including her sister, threatened her of imprisonment for the “queer” relationship. In newspaper interviews, Dutee Chand said her sister threatened to reveal relationship to media she didn’t give her money. “After winning government awards, my sister felt I’d splurge on my partner,” she said in one of these interviews.
The family was scandalized and the people of her home state called it “humiliating” that their local hero is not straight, thereby degrading her desire to get married.
One of the villagers said, “It’s humiliating for all of us. We have supported her all the way in her running but we cannot accept this relationship. Marriage can only be between a man and a woman. She should never have talked about it to the whole world. She should stick to running,” as reported by The Guardian.
The athlete took the criticism in her stride. “This is my personal matter. I am sure everything will be fine in a month or two. On the international level, there are several athletes (who are in a same-sex relationship). To live, everybody needs a partner who understands your heart. We like each other so we decided to live together. She gives me motivation for my sport. My focus on sports will be intact,” she had said.
“Problem will come and go in future; nobody can take guarantee of that. But I think there won’t be any problem. If it won’t happen, I’ll be able to focus more on my training. My focus is on Olympics 2020 (to be held in Tokyo). I am training to qualify and participate in the Olympics,” she added.
She was indeed focused on her game. The World University Games 2019 was her first major competition since she came out about being in a same-sex relationship – and she struck gold.
She received praises from President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra before the B-Town showered love on the golden girl. Immediately after the news broke, the A-list celebrities took to Twitter to express their happiness. Akshay Kumar, Ayushmann Khurrana, Arjun Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Neha Dhupia, Taapsee Pannu and Dia Mirza praised the athlete. Film-makers Anurag Kashyap and Atul Kasbekar also tweeted their congratulations to the athlete.
Half a decade ago, she was banned from competing against the runners of her own gender, due to a natural condition called hyperandrogenism which caused her body to produce natural levels of testosterone that were so high, that they place her in the male range, well, at least in the eyes of international track and field.
She was dropped from the Commonwealth Games squad by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). Dutee Chand challenged the ruling, and reversed it, setting a milestone in a fight for gender equality in sports.
The next aim is to qualify for the World Championships in Doha, starting September 26. For that she has to achieve the qualifying mark of 11.24 seconds, a timing lower than her personal best. She needs to compete more at international events to improve her timing. But sponsorship is an issue. The Napoli trip was sponsored by her university and not the government.
So far, the government hasn’t found her performances good enough for elite-level funding.
That’s another challenge, but the fighter that she is, Dutee Chand is bound to shine bright like sun every time someone tries to pull her down.
It’s not for nothing that she tweeted after the Napoli triumph: “Pull me down, I will come back stronger!”
Come back stronger and run faster – India needs more gold medals from you, Dutee!
