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Sprinter Dutee Chand fears Olympics 2020 miss
Updated On: 19 March, 2020 10:01 AM IST | New Delhi | AFP
One of six children born to a poor family, Chand is not new to beating the odds
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Dutee Chand
After battling in court to be able to run and fighting discrimination when she came out as gay, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand now has to overcome the fear of training in a pandemic to maintain her Olympic hopes. Chand, who was banned from competing internationally because of the hyperandrogenism gene condition, wants the Tokyo Games to go ahead even if she has not yet made the women's 100 metre qualifying time of 11.15sec. But running close to other Indian athletes is fraught as the deadly coronavirus spreads across the country of 1.3 billion people.
"There is fear of catching the coronavirus because we train together and if somebody catches it then it is going to spread," the 24-year-old told AFP over phone from a camp in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar. "I am not going out other than to train. Home-cooked food is the order of the day, I don't eat out at all. "Washing hands has become a 24-hour activity. So hopefully we will overcome the crisis." But the global sporting lockdown caused by the mounting death toll means there are no races for Chand to run and reach the qualifying time.
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