After a Gap of Six Years, Dutee Chand Still the Fastest

Returning to top flight competition six months after she was banned for having high levels of a male hormone, androgen, in her body, athlete Dutee Chand won gold in the 100m event at the ongoing National Games in Kerala. The 19 year old girl from Odisha is glad that she is still India's fastest.

"The weather here is great, not too hot, not too cold. And our food and accommodation has been taken care of very well. That's why I ran a very good race,", said Dutee Chand, just after winning the 100m gold at the ongoing National Games in Kerala. Only if it was that simple. Dutee's timing of 11.76s in the final was far from her personal best of 11.63s. But the 19 year old girl knows all too well that she had run perhaps the most significant race of her fledgling career.

Holder of multiple junior national sprint records, and the only Indian to compete in a 100m final at the World Championships (Junior World Championships in Ukraine in 2013), Dutee's career was brought to a halt, when the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), dropped her from the squad for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. That after test results revealed that Dutee had relatively higher levels of androgen, a male hormone, in her body. She couldn't compete in women's events until her androgen levels were brought down to normal. Mind you, by no means did it mean that Dutee was a man. But the world had made up its mind.

Heartbroken, and scared if she would ever be able to compete again, Dutee returned to her village, Jajpur, in Odisha. "I didn't know what was happening to me, and why. I went to the Jagannath temple and asked God why was this happening to me. All I wanted to do was run, then why was is so complicated?," Dutee told NDTV from Kerala. "I am still very young, and I don't know many things. But I know what happened to me was very wrong. It was unfair."

Support came for the teenager from the Sports Authority of India (SAI), that let her train at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), in Patiala. Gradually she mustered up the courage to return to the track. More significantly, she refused to undergo hormone therapy. Instead, she chose the legal route, taking the AFI to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It was a provisional permission from CAS that allowed Dutee to compete domestically, first at the Odisha State Athletics Meet, followed by the National Games.

"Can you imagine how much courage it would take a child to leave her village in these circumstances and return to the track? She is a wonder kid, I don't know what else to call her,"Dutee's long time coach Ramesh N told NDTV. Before arriving in Kerala, Ramesh worked on Dutee's fitness at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.

Dutee's case comes up for hearing in CAS between the 23rd-26th of March in Lausanne, which she wants to be made public, so that the injustice that was handed to her is known to everyone. "Now it depends on god. If they allow me to run internationally, I will compete, that is the only thing I know. Otherwise, perhaps, I will open a running academy in my state,", she says.