Four years after she was forced out of the Asian Games in a row over her gender, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand said she was determined to make up for lost time as she finally gets her chance in Indonesia.
Chand — who has hyperandrogenism, the condition that has dogged the career of two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya of South Africa — fought and won a lengthy court battle to remain in the sport she loves.
Now the 22-year-old is hoping for a redemptive medal at her long-delayed Asian Games debut in Jakarta, where she also has her eye on lowering India’s 100m record for the second time in two months.
Photo: AFP
“I am just so happy. I missed the 2014 Asian Games due to the hyperandrogenism row, so it’s my chance to prove my worth,” Chand, whose hero is Usain Bolt, told reporters after a training session in Hyderabad.
“I hope my hard work pays off,” she said. “I never thought of quitting. It’s always a dream for an athlete to represent their country and what happened was not my fault.”
It has been a difficult road for Chand, who was born in rural poverty and suffered the psychological trauma of gender testing when she was just a teenager after showing elevated levels of testosterone in 2014.
After being diagnosed with hyperandrogenism, a condition that produces high testosterone levels, Chand was barred from competing under the International Association of Athletics Federations’ rules at the time.
However, Chand took her case to the Netherlands-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in her favor earlier this year.
“We are six sisters, as my mother had wanted a son, but that did not happen. We were poor and even getting two meals was tough. So I took to sports to earn money and improve myself,” Chand said.
“I just wanted to run and had never heard of high testosterone and all that. So for those four years I was under tremendous mental pressure and could not concentrate on my training,” she said.
“I didn’t take drugs or anything of that sort, it’s all natural. All human bodies are different. Natural hormones cannot be reduced or increased. Finally people understood this and I won the case,” she added.
This year, the association changed its rules to target middle-distance runners, such as Semenya, citing evidence that races between 400m and 1.6km had been most affected by women with high testosterone levels.
While Athletics South Africa has pledged to challenge the ruling, Chand is able to compete as she runs the 100m and 200m, thanks partly to another quirk of her physiology — short-sightedness.
“I concentrate on 100m, because I am short-sighted,” said Chand, who originally competed in long-distance events.
“My first coach retired in 2008 and the new coach said: ‘I can only train you for 100m and 200m.’ So I started running short distance and there has been no looking back,” she added.
At India’s Inter-State Championships in June, Chand set a new national record of 11.29 seconds, still a ways off the long-standing Asian mark of 10.79 seconds set by China’s Li Xuemei in 1997.
“I hope I can win a medal, but you never know. The Asian Games is a big competition with top runners,” Chand said.
Ramesh Nagapuri, Chand’s coach since 2012, said it is difficult for athletes to rediscover their rhythm after a long break, but added that she has come back ready for a fight.
“Somehow we are trying to patch up, but it’s like a wound: It will heal up, but the scars will be there,” Nagapuri said, while overseeing Chand’s training in Hyderabad.
“Frankly, we are planning to do better than the 11.29 seconds at the Inter-State. Anything that is better we will take,” Nagapuri said with a smile, before pushing Chand to go harder again in training.
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