My ultimate aim is to bring home the gold medal for India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” says Chand. “The following six months I worked extremely hard, training seven to 10 hours a day on the track, in the gym, swimming… Against all odds, I managed to qualify for the Rio Olympics and started performing even better with all the support I got during this rough phase. Two years later, she won her appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against sporting giants AFI and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and was cleared to run. “It was an extremely tough year, but I decided to fight,” she recalls. The Athletic Federation of India (AFI) dropped her from the Commonwealth contingent at the last moment stating that her medical condition, hyperandrogenism, made her ineligible to participate as a female athlete. In 2014, Chand faced one of her biggest professional setbacks yet. COURAGE UNDER FIREīut her personal life is not the only space in which she has braved her share of challenges. A year after being pursued by her, Chand finally committed to a relationship on Valentine’s Day, and today she’s certain that she is the one she’ll eventually marry. I told her my story… and she was extremely kind and understanding,” says Chand. “She was a distant relative who would come everyday to tend to me. “That’s when I met my girlfriend,” she says about her current partner. Then she fractured her hand and was homebound. After being in two serious relationships, both ending when her respective partners married men under pressure from their families, she wasn’t ready to commit again. It wasn’t until she was 20 that she discovered she was attracted to women. No stranger to fighting adversity, Chand has faced her share of obstacles. Money will come and go, but I will continue to be grounded.” She’s candid when she speaks to me about her professional and personal wins and losses as well as her plans to get into politics and philanthropy in the future. “I come from a poor background, I’ve seen struggle. She insists she is “a simpleton”-her warm, infectious smile winning me over immediately. Instead, she has used her acclaim as a platform to come out about her sexuality and become India’s first openly gay athlete. Today, as we sit here, in her plush room at the Four Seasons in Mumbai, just over a month after she clinched the gold medal in 100 metres at the World University Games in Naples, making her the first-ever Indian woman track and field athlete to do so, clocking 11.32 seconds, it’s clear that Chand has not let fame get to her. In addition to training, Chand would help her family of nine work on sari weaves to make ends meet. "His inspiring personality endeared himself to millions," Modi said in a tweet.Back then, she was encouraged by her older sister, Saraswati (a state-level runner), to pursue sports as it would help her get a job through the government sports quota and ease their financial situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes to the athlete and called him a "colossal sportsperson, who captured the nation's imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indians." Singh represented India at the Olympics in 1956, 19. He narrowly missed out on an Olympic medal, finishing fourth at the 400m final of the 1960 Rome Games. Popularly known as "the Flying Sikh," Singh was the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the 400m division in 1958. "He fought hard but God has his ways," Singh's family said in a statement. His wife Nirmal Kaur, a former volleyball captain, had died of the virus just days earlier. Singh had first tested positive for the coronavirus on May 20. Singh's family said he died late Friday of complications from COVID-19 in a hospital in the northern city of Chandigarh. NEW DELHI (AP) - Milkha Singh, one of India's first sport superstars and ace sprinter who overcame a childhood tragedy to become the country's most celebrated athlete, has died. 15, 2013, file photo, former Indian athlete Milkha Singh, with, and Bollywood actor Bipasha Basu waves to the participants during the Delhi Half Marathon in New Delhi, India.
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