Saraswati Chand

Dutee Chand (born 3 February 1996) is an Indian professional sprinter and a former national champion in the women's 100 metres event. In 2013, Chand was the first Indian sprinter to reach the final of the 100m event at a global youth athletics competition, and in 2016 she took part in the Rio Olympic Games. She is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games. It was India's first medal in this event since 1998. Moreover, In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.

Chand was at the center of a hyperandrogenism controversy in athletics. In 2014, she was barred from international competition due to the IAAF's Hyperandrogenism Regulations, which set a limit on naturally occurring testosterone levels for female athletes. Chand challenged these regulations, leading to a landmark case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2015, which suspended the regulations for two years, citing insufficient scientific evidence to support them. The IAAF introduced new regulations in 2018, reigniting the debate on the inclusion of intersex athletes in women's sport and the Olympic games.

Chand is also India's first athlete to openly come out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, when she spoke in 2019 about being in a same-sex relationship.

Early life

The third of seven children, Chand was born on February 3, 1996 into a below-poverty-line weaver's family in Gopalpur, a small village in the state of Odisha, one of the poorest areas in India. Her older sister Saraswati, a state-level runner, was her source of inspiration. At the age of four, Chand began engaging in workouts along with Saraswati on their village's local track. In 2006, when Chand was 10 year old, they were enrolled in a government sports hostel. Chand was no longer living at home and was training in a national program three hours away where she practiced track. This national program enabled her to send financial support to her family, allowing them to move from their two-room, bathroomless house.

In 2013, she enrolled in the KIIT University to study law.

Career

2012–2013

In 2012, Chand became a national champion in the under-18 category, when she clocked 11.85 seconds in the national youth junior athletic championships. In fact, following the rule by the International Association of Athletics Federations states that Chand could only be allowed to compete again if she lowers her testosterone levels that falls under beneath the male range. Chand states that "I feel that its wrong to have to change your body for sport participation" then she follows it with "I'm not changing for anyone."

In 2013, she enrolled in the KIIT University to study law. As of 2016, she is employed as an executive officer in the state PSU The Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd. Clocking 23.811 seconds, Chand won the bronze in the Women's 200 metres event at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships at Pune. The year also saw her become the first Indian to reach the final of a global athletics 100 metres final, when she reached the final in the 2013 World Youth Championships. In the same year, she became the national champion in 100 metres and 200 metres when she won the events clocking 11.73 s in the final in 100 metres and a career-best 23.73 s in 200 metres at the National Senior Athletics Championships at Ranchi.

2014-2015 hyperandrogenism controversy

In June 2014, Chand won two gold medals at Asian Junior Athletics Championships in 200 metres and 4 × 400 m relays. In the 200m event she improved her previous timing to 23.74 seconds and hoping to qualify for the Commonwealth Games but Chand was dropped from the 2014 Commonwealth Games contingent at the last minute after the Athletic Federation of India declared her ineligible to compete as a female athlete due to hyperandrogenism. Following the Commonwealth Games she was also excluded from the Indian contingent for the 2014 Asian Games. There was no suggestion that Chand was involved in cheating or doping, and the decision was widely criticized by intersex advocates.

Chand appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Canadian law firm Davies, Ward, Philips & Vineberg, LLP represented her on a ''pro bono'' basis. The IAAF policy on hyperandrogenism, or high natural levels of testosterone in women, was suspended following the case of ''Dutee Chand v. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) & The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)'', in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, decided in July 2015. The ruling found that there was a lack of evidence provided that testosterone increased female athletic performance and notified the IAAF that it had two years to provide the evidence. This ruling effectively lifted Chand's suspension, clearing her to compete again.

The process of determining Chand's eligibility to compete with women caused her significant suffering, including invasive medical examinations and humiliating public scrutiny. Santhi Soundarajan, an Indian middle-distance runner, extended her support to Chand, saying that Chand should not be "victimized". She said that steps should be taken to ensure Chand's return to the track. Commenting in 2018 on the case of the intersex runner Caster Semenya, Chand expressed her pain and struggle of four years, when she was controversially not allowed to compete in any international events due to hyperandrogenism. "These four years have been extremely tough for me. The negativity, fear of my career ending prematurely, insensitive comments about my body, I have faced them all. I am extremely relieved that I can run fearlessly again, knowing that now my battle exists only on the track and not off it."

2016

Following the hyperandrogenism rule change, Chand resumed competing and participated in 60 metres at the 2016 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, where she set the Indian national record of 7.28 seconds in the qualification round and went on to win the bronze medal in the final with a time of 7.37 seconds.

Chand clocked 11.33 seconds in women's 100m dash to win the gold and erase Rachita Mistry's 16-year-old earlier national record of 11.38 s in the 2016 Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi. However, she missed the Rio Olympics qualification norm of 11.32 s by one-hundredth of a second. On 25 June 2016, Chand broke the same national record twice in one day after clocking 11.24 at the XXVI International Meeting G Kosanov Memorial at Almaty, Kazakhstan, thereby qualifying for the Olympic Games. "I am really happy at the moment, it has been a tough year for me and I am so happy that my coach... and my hard work has paid off. I would like to thank all the people in India who were praying for me to qualify. Your wishes have paid off."

At Rio 2016 Olympics, she became the third Indian woman to participate in the Women's 100 metres, though she did not move beyond the heats, where she clocked 11.69 seconds.

Since Rio, Chand has been training at Hyderabad with young athletes, most notable among them Indian Badminton Star P. V. Sindhu.

In 2016, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appointed Chand as asassistant manager of Odisha Mining Corporation, explaining that the government's decision to directly employ athletes was to reward their achievements and provide them with financial stability.

2017−2019

In 2017, at the Asian Athletics Championships she clinched two bronze medals, one in the Women's 100 metres, another in the Women's 4 × 100 m relay with Srabani Nanda, Merlin K Joseph, and Himashree Roy at Bhubaneswar.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Chand in the Women's 100 metres finals, won the silver medal, her first Asian games medal, clocking 11.32 seconds on 26 August. Again on 29 August, she bagged her second silver at the Asian games in the Women's 200 metres final. Her silver in 100 m, was India's silver medal in this category after 32 years since P.T.Usha won in 1986 and Chand's first medal in the Asian games as she was banned in 2014 and her 200 m silver is after 16 years for India since Saraswati Saha's gold in 2002 at Busan.

As she won these two medals after a long court battle, she expressed her concern about her future saying, "My legal team helped me to come back. But nobody could guarantee what will happen in the future." Citing Caster Semenya's ongoing fight, she said, "Caster Semenya is still fighting. There is always fear but you need to overcome it."

At the 2019 Summer Universiade in Napoli, Chand won gold in the 100m race, becoming the first Indian woman sprinter to win gold at the Universiade. She finished the sprint in 11.32 seconds. She was also the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony of the event.

2019 coming out as gay

In May 2019, Chand became India's first openly gay athlete as she publicly revealed that she was in a same-sex relationship. Chand stated that the 2018 Indian Supreme Court decision to decriminalize gay sex empowered her to speak openly about her sexuality. Chand's announcement was met with mixed reactions. While she received widespread support on social media and from the LGBTQ+ community, she also faced severe backlash from her home village, where residents disavowed her remarks and called them "humiliating". Her eldest sister threatened to expel her from the family.

Later life

In August 2019, prominent sportswear brand Puma signed Chand for two years to endorse their products.

In 2021 Chandra competed at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the Women's 100m and 200m events, having qualified due to her world rankings as she did not meet the events' entry requirements (minimum times). In the initial heats she posted times of 11.54 and 23.85 seconds, respectively, well outside of the range required to progress to the semi-final rounds.

She was one of the athletes whose cases were profiled in Phyllis Ellis's 2022 documentary film '' Woman''.

In 2022 she joined as a contestant the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 10.

On 18 January 2023 it was announced that Chand had tested positive for three different prohibited substances.

In 2024 Chand announced her decision to retire from sport after competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics. She explained: "I'm growing old, I'm not as fast as I used to be".

International competitions

Legend
*H − Heats/qualification rounds
*SF − Semi-finals
*FL − Finals
*NR − National record
*PB − Personal best

Awards and honours

* from the Government of Orissa for winning silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games.Chand appeared in India's most famous TV show conducted by actor Amitabh Bachhann called Kaun Banega Crorepati on 1st Nov 2019. Cash awards by state governments for Asian Games medal winne , Asian Games 2018 News
. Times of India (31 August 2018). Retrieved on 2018-09-04.

See also

*'' Rashmi Rocket'', Indian sports drama film about sex verification in sports
*Caster Semenya
* Santhi Soundarajan
* Maria José Martínez-Patiño

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chand, Dutee
1996 births
Living people
Indian female sprinters
21st-century Indian women
21st-century Indian people
Sportswomen from Odisha
People from Jajpur district
Sex verification in sports
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for India
Athletes from Odisha
Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games
Asian Games silver medalists for India
Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
World Athletics Championships athletes for India
Queer women
Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games
Indian LGBTQ sportspeople
Indian lesbians
Indian queer people
LGBTQ track and field athletes
FISU World University Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Universiade medalists for India
South Asian Games silver medalists for India
South Asian Games bronze medalists for India
South Asian Games medalists in athletics
Medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade
Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games competitors for India
Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology alumni
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
Olympic female sprinters
21st-century Indian LGBTQ people
Lesbian sportswomen
Indian sportspeople in doping cases
Intersex sportspeople
Asian Athletics Championships medalists