Having become the first Indian sprinter to reach a final at a global athletics event in 2013, the 18-year-old was already the national champion at 100m and 200m, and an Asian Games bronze medallist.
Such was the excitement about her potential that the Sports Authority of India's director general Jiji Thomson described her as a "sure shot Olympic medallist" of the future, and a place in a final on her Commonwealth Games debut looked within her reach.
But then, less than a fortnight before the opening ceremony in Glasgow, she "failed" a test that had nothing to do with fitness, form or even doping, and was dramatically withdrawn from the national team.
Like South African 800m sensation Caster Semenya before her, Chand discovered - in bold newsprint - that she had natural levels of the hormone testosterone normally only found in men. It did not take long before reporters were outside her parents' humble home asking them and her six siblings if she was a boy or a girl.
Now, almost three months later, Chand is in limbo, unable to join the Indian team at the 2014 Asian Games, and unwilling to subject herself to the "corrective" treatment (hormone suppression therapy and sometimes even genital surgery) prescribed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other leading sports bodies.
"I am who I am," says Chand with a mixture of defiance and dismay. Full story...
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Such was the excitement about her potential that the Sports Authority of India's director general Jiji Thomson described her as a "sure shot Olympic medallist" of the future, and a place in a final on her Commonwealth Games debut looked within her reach.
But then, less than a fortnight before the opening ceremony in Glasgow, she "failed" a test that had nothing to do with fitness, form or even doping, and was dramatically withdrawn from the national team.
Like South African 800m sensation Caster Semenya before her, Chand discovered - in bold newsprint - that she had natural levels of the hormone testosterone normally only found in men. It did not take long before reporters were outside her parents' humble home asking them and her six siblings if she was a boy or a girl.
Now, almost three months later, Chand is in limbo, unable to join the Indian team at the 2014 Asian Games, and unwilling to subject herself to the "corrective" treatment (hormone suppression therapy and sometimes even genital surgery) prescribed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other leading sports bodies.
"I am who I am," says Chand with a mixture of defiance and dismay. Full story...
Related posts:
- If Semenya can keep her medal, why shouldn't India's Santhi get hers back?
- Beijing Olympics: no more Santhi Soundarajan humiliations...
- South Africa's Semenya won't be stripped of her medal...
- South Africans unite behind gender row athlete Semenya...
- New twist in Caster Semenya gender controversy...
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