Dutee Chand - Revision history

Jyoti: /* Achievements */

2025-07-28T17:22:54Z

‎Achievements

Jyoti: /* 1st athlete to come out as gay */

2022-02-28T21:52:34Z

‎1st athlete to come out as gay

Jyoti: /* 2019 */

2022-02-28T21:50:43Z

‎2019

Jyoti: /* 2018 */

2020-12-17T12:22:59Z

‎2018

Jyoti: /* Family */

2020-12-01T06:54:06Z

‎Family

Jyoti at 09:35, 22 November 2020

2020-11-22T09:35:48Z

Jyoti: /* Achievements */

2020-11-22T09:35:38Z

‎Achievements

Jyoti at 09:35, 22 November 2020

2020-11-22T09:35:25Z

Jyoti at 21:22, 18 September 2018

2018-09-18T21:22:19Z

Jyoti at 18:38, 18 September 2018

2018-09-18T18:38:05Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:22, 28 July 2025
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	The Odisha athlete, the fastest Indian woman, has come a long way since failing a gender test. The ace sprinter will be hoping to break new ground at the Asiad as she attempts to win medals in the women’s 100m and 200m events in which Indians have struggled to make the podium. The last medal in 100m – no Indian has won a gold – came through PT Usha in 1986.		The Odisha athlete, the fastest Indian woman, has come a long way since failing a gender test. The ace sprinter will be hoping to break new ground at the Asiad as she attempts to win medals in the women’s 100m and 200m events in which Indians have struggled to make the podium. The last medal in 100m – no Indian has won a gold – came through PT Usha in 1986.
		+
		+	=Early life=
		+	[https://www.newindianexpress.com/sport/2016/Jul/13/rios-golden-girl-the-rags-to-riches-tale-of-dutee-chand-880412.html Shan A S, July 13, 2016: ''The Indian Express'']
		+
		+	Dutee Chand, the 'golden girl', who has qualified for Rio Olympics in the 100 m and 4x100 m relay, becomes a girl again.
		+
		+
		+	There is a small window facing the street in Dutee Chand's room. The sunlight peeping through it is not enough to light up the two-bedroom house shared by a family of eight. Opposite the window, on the wall of the house across the street is a crude painting of a rice plant.
		+
		+	That window was Dutee’s outlet to the world for two years while she went through the humiliating experience of being subjected to a hyperandrogenism test, seen by many as a test of gender. Pursued by media and fighting the maelstrom of identity raging within her, she remained indoors, gazing at that reed of grass from that window.
		+
		+	It was a test of resilience as the girl -- yes, girl -- from the village of Gopalpur, about 90 km from Bhubaneswar, took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and won its verdict. Now, the taunts have turned into paeans: Dutee Chand, the 'golden girl', who has qualified for Rio Olympics in the 100 m and 4x100 m relay, the girl who became a girl again.
		+
		+	On a rainy afternoon, sitting by Dutee's window, her elder sister Saraswati recollected the hardships the sprinter and the family endured after the Incident.
		+
		+	“I remember her coming home after the incident. She was brought home by two coaches. There was only silence in our house for two months. It was like a mourning. We hardly cooked. Dutee would stand here at this window. Sometimes, she would go to that corner and silently weep. Occasionally, she would explode with anger. Sometimes, she became delirious. Much of that time, she became distant, sitting still like a doll. We were afraid if she was going to harm herself,” says the sister.
		+
		+	Dutee’s success on the track had got her a job, and the family looked up to her. “We had been struggling financially until Dutee got a job. It was a big relief. Our parents were weavers. Between them, my father and mother made about Rs 3000 per month.”
		+
		+	Dutee took to athletics after her elder sister. Saraswati’s purpose in running was to get herself a job, any job. She would practice on the banks of the river Brahmani near their house. “One day, while running on the sand, I spotted Duttee behind me. I had never seen her doing that. She told me she had been doing it secretly for a long time. She had been running on my footprints. How had I missed that! And then I thought 'now this girl will also run, get a government job and help the family',” Saraswati recalled.
		+
		+	Government jobs were something to run for. The Chand family home was a thatched hut. The sisters’ parents, Chakradhar and Akhuji, wove in the ‘verandah’ of the hut on an ancient handloom. It barely paid for the food.
		+
		+	Saraswati's husky voice cracks as she relives those days. “Till I got a job, we had never had royal food.”
		+
		+	She means non-vegetarian dishes.
		+
		+	“Survival was our biggest challenge. Good food was a luxury. We lived on tomato curry. Tomatoes were cheap. On days when we couldn't afford even that, we dipped our rotis in black tea.”
		+
		+	It wasn’t only poverty. There was its sibling, social humiliation, to endure. “There is a grocery shop in the market nearby, where our father bought food on credit,” says Saraswati, her eyes now glinting in remembered anger. “When the payment got due, the shopkeeper would make him wait. Those who paid in cash got served first. That was the rule. There were days my father used to go to get rice for our supper at 8 pm and be back at 11.”
		+	The sisters can’t get themselves to forgive the shopkeeper to this day.
		+
		+	It was Saraswati who made the breakthrough. She ran for the state, and it got her a job in the Odisha Police in 2005. Dutee, running in her sister’s footsteps, made it through several years later, and it turned the tide for the family.
		+
		+	The girls’ jobs changed things but slowly. The food got better, if not right royal. The hut became a house and the parents were forbidden to go that shop ever again. The ancient loom is still in the verandah, treated more as an heirloom on which Chakradhar insists on weaving a scarf or two as homage to his ancestral profession.
		+
		+	Freed of bread-winning responsibilities, Chakradhar and Akhuji turned to prayer. Whenever the girls ran, Akhuji lit a lamp for her idols of Maa Tarini, Lakshmi and Hanuman, Dutee’s favour god.
		+
		+	And then the hyperandrogenism controversy broke upon Dutee. The mother was inconsolable. “I was broken when I heard of it,” Akhuji says. “How could it happen? She was born a girl, competed as a girl and won medals as one. And then one morning, someone says she's not a girl. How can that happen?”
		+
		+	The family turned to its fait to keep Dutee’s spirits up, telling her countless times about the travails that even Lord Rama had to endure.
		+
		+	In their formative years, when the sisters ran on the banks of the Brahmani in shorts, it caused an uproar in the village. “Why are you allowing the girls to run in skimpy clothes,” villages would stop Chakradhar in the streets to ask. He used silence as defiance. “They were against the girls running and I defied them. Now Dutee has proved that my defiance was valid,” he says now, beaming.
		+
		+	The village too has learnt to accept the girls, and even takes pride in them now. The Chands’ neighbor, Bipin Bihari Guin, now thinks the sisters’ fame can bring drinking water to the village. “The village is facing a lot of issues like scarcity of drinking water and power cuts. We feel Dutee's achievements will draw the attention of authorities to these issues.”
		+
		+	Now the village is united in praying for Duteee’s return to laurels, perhaps even an Olympic medal. For Dutee's younger sisters, there is also the promise of chocolates from abroad, which sister always remembers to bring after a competition overseas.
		+
		+	“We have an Olympian who didn't have the fortune to taste chicken curry in her childhood,” chuckles Utkal Guin, Dutee’s classmate and neighbour.
		+
		+	Out on the street, not far from Dutee’s once sad window, stands a violet Nano, wrapped in body cover. It’s the car someone gifted to Dutee chand after she won in the school nationals some years ago. It’s little used, bar for taking Dutee’s younger siblings out on a spin around the village. It waits, a symbol of a small fortune and a sea change.
		+
		+	[[Category:India\|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]
		+	[[Category:Sports\|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]

	=Family=		=Family=

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 28 February 2022
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	=2019=		=2019=
−	~~==1st athlete to come out as gay==~~
−	~~[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F12%2F29&entity=Ar01902&sk=FE1E9564&mode=text Dec 29, 2019: ''The Times of India'']~~

−	~~'''DUTEE CHAND 23 FIRST INDIAN ATHLETE TO COME OUT AS GAY'''~~
−
−	~~''‘I think it’s better to live as I am than in fear’''~~
−
−	When Dutee Chand started running at four, her aim was to run fast enough to earn a scholarship. “I prayed that my school fees would be waived and maybe later I would get a job,” she recalls. Even as a preschooler, Dutee knew her feet had to be firmly planted on the ground, even when she was dreaming.
−
−	“We ate only once a day because there was never enough money,” she says. The family of nine lived in a one-room mud home in Odisha’s Chaka Gopalpur village, and growing up, Dutee did not have shoes or a sweater to keep warm in winter. The daughter of a weaver, who earned just about Rs 200 a month, spending her time running on the river bank only brought opposition and ridicule.
−
−	It was only in 2006 when she won her first medal (a silver) that people began to take notice. Six years on, the 5 ft 3” sprinter became a national champion in the under-18 category, clocking 11.8 seconds and breaking the national record in 100m. Described as India’s fastest woman, Dutee broke her own record in October this year and clocked 11.22 seconds.
−	Prejudices continued to chase her all the way. In 2014, she was disqualified on grounds of hyperandrogenism. As hysteria built up around her gender identity, the 18-year-old broke her silence and said she would fight. “I did not understand the tests or the rules. But I knew whatever was in my body was natural and I would fight against this ban,” she says. She appealed successfully, triggered a change in sporting rules, and scripted the comeback India was waiting for.
−
−	Earlier this year, she came out as gay and announced she was in a same-sex relationship. “I am in love with another girl. But you know how society is. I thought how will they treat my family, they will blame my mother. But when my sister threatened to make it public, I thought it would be better to live openly as I am than live in fear,” she says.
−
−	The announcement was met with taunts but also love and support, especially from those fighting for social acceptance of the Supreme Court order legalising homosexuality. “I get a lot of messages from people who say that I have given them courage to speak and to live on their own terms. I never intended that but I am happy people feel braver now,” the sprinter says. That done, next goal: Tokyo 2020.
−
−	~~'''— Himanshi Dhawan'''~~

		+	[[Category:India\|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]
		+	[[Category:Sports\|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]

	==Universiade/ 1st Indian to win 100m at global meet==		==Universiade/ 1st Indian to win 100m at global meet==

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 =2019=
 ==Universiade/ 1st Indian to win 100m at global meet==
 [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F07%2F11&entity=Ar00303&sk=97ECB1F5&mode=text  Sabi Hussain, July 11, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
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 DUTEE CHAND]]
 [[Category:Sports|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
 DUTEE CHAND]]

@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 Dutee said she was disappointed finishing third in the semifinal and was apprehensive about winning a medal.
-[[Category:India|C
+=2019=
-DUTEE CHAND]]
+==Universiade/ 1st Indian to win 100m at global meet==
-[[Category:Sports|C
+[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F07%2F11&entity=Ar00303&sk=97ECB1F5&mode=text  Sabi Hussain, July 11, 2019: ''The Times of India'']
-DUTEE CHAND]]
-[[Category:India|C DUTEE CHAND
+[[Category:India|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
 DUTEE CHAND]]
-[[Category:Sports|C DUTEE CHAND
+[[Category:Sports|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
 DUTEE CHAND]]

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 Responding to Dutee’s fresh allegations, Saraswati said it was not true. She said Dutee is being “blackmailed and pressurized” by some people who want her money.
-[[Category:India|C DUTEE CHAND
+May 2019 — when Dutee became India’s first openly gay athlete — changed all that. Gopalpur’s residents now say they are are embarrassed to mention the name of the ace sprinter who put their tiny village on the Indian and global map. To many, the 23-year-old athlete’s declaration of same-sex love was a watershed moment in Indian sports. Back home, though, Gopalpur has condemned her.
 DUTEE CHAND]]
-[[Category:Sports|C DUTEE CHAND
+[[Category:Sports|C DUTEE CHANDDUTEE CHAND
 DUTEE CHAND]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:35, 22 November 2020
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−	~~=Achievements=~~
−	~~[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F14&entity=Ar02801&sk=76000750&mode=text August 14, 2018: ''The Times of India'']~~


−	The Odisha athlete, the fastest Indian woman, has come a long way since failing a gender test. The ace sprinter will be hoping to break new ground at the Asiad as she attempts to win medals in the women’s 100m and 200m events in which Indians have struggled to make the podium. The last medal in 100m – no Indian has won a gold – came through PT Usha in 1986.	+	[[Category:India\|C DUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]
		+	[[Category:Sports\|C DUTEE CHAND
		+	DUTEE CHAND]]

	=Year-Wise, statistics=		=Year-Wise, statistics=

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 |}
-[[Category:India |C ]]
-[[Category:Sports |C ]]
 =Achievements=
@@ Line 30: / Line 48: @@
 Dutee said she was disappointed finishing third in the semifinal and was apprehensive about winning a medal.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:22, 18 September 2018
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	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F27&entity=Ar01911&sk=BBA6F764&mode=text Biswajyoti Brahma, HAPPY AFTER ENDURING PAIN FOR LONG: DUTEE, August 27, 2018: ''The Times of India'']		[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F27&entity=Ar01911&sk=BBA6F764&mode=text Biswajyoti Brahma, HAPPY AFTER ENDURING PAIN FOR LONG: DUTEE, August 27, 2018: ''The Times of India'']

		+	[[File: Dutee Chand (women’s 100m).jpg\|Dutee Chand (women’s 100m) <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F27&entity=Ar01904&sk=207243C2&mode=text August 27, 2018: ''The Times of India'']\|frame\|500px]]

	It was a sort of redemption for Dutee Chand, who had to undergo “mental agony” following her tryst with hyperandrogenism four years back. The sprinter had to face a lot of hardship and was even dropped from the Indian squad in 2014 due to hyperandrogenism policy of the world athletics body (IAAF). She was later made ineligible before being reinstated following a Court of Arbitration order (CAS).		It was a sort of redemption for Dutee Chand, who had to undergo “mental agony” following her tryst with hyperandrogenism four years back. The sprinter had to face a lot of hardship and was even dropped from the Indian squad in 2014 due to hyperandrogenism policy of the world athletics body (IAAF). She was later made ineligible before being reinstated following a Court of Arbitration order (CAS).

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:38, 18 September 2018
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	The Odisha athlete, the fastest Indian woman, has come a long way since failing a gender test. The ace sprinter will be hoping to break new ground at the Asiad as she attempts to win medals in the women’s 100m and 200m events in which Indians have struggled to make the podium. The last medal in 100m – no Indian has won a gold – came through PT Usha in 1986.		The Odisha athlete, the fastest Indian woman, has come a long way since failing a gender test. The ace sprinter will be hoping to break new ground at the Asiad as she attempts to win medals in the women’s 100m and 200m events in which Indians have struggled to make the podium. The last medal in 100m – no Indian has won a gold – came through PT Usha in 1986.
		+
		+	=Year-Wise, statistics=
		+	=2018=
		+	==Asiad==
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F08%2F27&entity=Ar01911&sk=BBA6F764&mode=text Biswajyoti Brahma, HAPPY AFTER ENDURING PAIN FOR LONG: DUTEE, August 27, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	It was a sort of redemption for Dutee Chand, who had to undergo “mental agony” following her tryst with hyperandrogenism four years back. The sprinter had to face a lot of hardship and was even dropped from the Indian squad in 2014 due to hyperandrogenism policy of the world athletics body (IAAF). She was later made ineligible before being reinstated following a Court of Arbitration order (CAS).
		+
		+	“Today I feel like a mother who had to bear the pain for nine months but forgets everything once she sees the new-born,” Dutee said after the race. “I am happy to win this medal after enduring pain for long,” she added.
		+
		+	She said she had worked hard for the event in the run up to the event, but could have claimed the gold after the tight fight. “People usually train for four hours a day but I worked for six hours. But my inexperience at competing at international events cost me the gold. The girl who won the top place had experience of several international competitions,” shew said.
		+
		+	Dutee said she was disappointed finishing third in the semifinal and was apprehensive about winning a medal.