Four years after she was forced out of the Asian Games in a row over her gender, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was determined to make up for lost time as she finally bagged a silver medal in Indonesia.
Bagging a medal with a time of 11.32 seconds, Chand, whose hero is Usain Bolt, is affected by the same condition, hyperandrogenism, which has dogged the career of double Olympic champion Caster Semenya, fought and won a lengthy court battle to remain in the sport she loves.
Here is a look at her profile
Dutee Chand
Date of Birth: February 3, 1996
Event at Asian Games: 100m
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Bronze medal in Asian Athletics Championship in 2017
Dutee Chand initially took up 100 metres due to the fact that she was short-sighted. She had started her athletics career as a long-distance runner but problems with clear vision forced her to change to the sprints.
She has been coached by Ramesh Nagapuri since 2012 and set the national record of 11.24 seconds in Almaty. Dutee has also competed in the 200 metres at times but the 100 remains her favourite event.
She also won two bronze medals at the Asian Athletics Championships in front of a home crowd in Bhubaneswar in 2017, where she competed in the 100 metres and the 4X100 metres relay.
It has been a difficult road for Chand, who was born in Gopalpur, Odisha 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 which produces high testosterone levels, Chand was barred from competing under the International Association of Athletics Federation’s rules at the time.
However, Chand took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which finally ruled in her favour earlier this year. It bore fruit, with the Asian Games silver easily the biggest medal of her career.
