Know your Olympians: Meet the Indian women track and field champs

Dutee Chand will be the first Indian athlete to compete in the 100m sprint in two consecutive Olympics when she takes to the track in Tokyo. The 25-year-old, who overcame a hypoandrogenism controversy to be able to compete, will participate in the 200m as well. The Vogue India favourite (and winner of the Sportsperson of the Year award at Vogue India's Women of the Year 2019) from Odisha is also India’s first openly lesbian athlete.

While Jisna Mathew was part of the women’s relay squad in Rio, it will be VK Vismaya’s first Olympics. The duo from Kerala is part of India’s Mixed 4x400m Relay team that includes Muhammad Anas and Noah Nirmal Tom too. The quartet qualified after finishing third at the World Athletics Championships in 2019. Mathew is coached by the legendary PT Usha.

Veteran discus thrower Seema Punia qualified for Tokyo after throwing 63.72m in the final of the inter-state championships to earn a direct quota. After testing positive for COVID-19 last year, it took the 37-year-old months to return to full fitness. This will be her fourth Olympic Games.

The latest sensation in Indian discus, Kamalpreet Kaur became the first Indian woman to breach the 65m barrier this year to qualify for Tokyo. In just a few months, she added a few more metres to her best, throwing 66.59m, a distance that would have bagged her a bronze in Rio. Using flowerpots as dumbbells and a bed filled with clothes for deadlifts were some of the 25-year-old’s pandemic-induced workouts to prepare for the Olympics.

Till a few years ago, Priyanka Goswami hadn’t even heard of the Olympics. As a teenager, she started competing in a 3km race walk, and just the thought of a 20km event exhausted her. The 24-year-old broke a national record to book her ticket to Tokyo. She’s the sole breadwinner of her family after her father lost his job during the pandemic.

To avoid taunts from her neighbours in their Rajasthan village for wearing shorts, Bhawna Jat started setting out at 3am for her practice. She gave up on education as her farmer father couldn’t afford it, and competed barefoot in the early years of her career. The 25-year-old is a former national record holder and competed outside India for the first time only last year. She can’t wait to be on an international flight again—this time for the Olympics.

She secured an Olympic quota on the basis of her world ranking (18). The 28-year-old, often called the finest women’s javelin thrower India has produced, has been improving constantly. The Meerut girl has medals from the Asian Games, Asian Championships and the South Asian Games.

Know Your Olympians is a Vogue India series to cheer and celebrate India’s women athletes at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020

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