Sprinter Dutee Chand to retire after 2024 Paris Olympics
Dutee Chand, an elite Indian sprinter, will retire after competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. After losing the 200m race to Priya Mohan at the Khelo India University Games, Dutee, who has represented India in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics, made her intentions clear, on her future.
Dutee Chand won two gold in the Khelo India University Games, aside from losing the 200m sprint to 19-year-old Priya Mohan. Earlier in the Games, she managed to defend her crown in the 100m sprint. “I'm growing old, I'm not as fast as I used to be,” the 26-year-old Dutee Chand, who won silver medals in 100m and 200m races at the Asian Games in 2018, told ESPN. “I'll pull along for two-three more years if my body cooperates.
“My body is becoming slower and I began training quite late this season,” she reasoned. Dutee is yet to fulfill the Athletics Federation of India's (AFI) qualification requirements for the Commonwealth Games (11.31s) and Asian Games (11.36s), both of which will be contested later this year. She will need to beat her personal best and clock 11.15s in the 100m race to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in July.
“I've already participated in five events this year to make the cut for these international events… I'm confident of hitting my peak in June-July before the international circuit begins,” Dutee Chand reckoned.
After PT Usha, Dutee Chand rose to prominence after claiming the 100m under-18 championships in 2012. She went on to be one of India's most accomplished sprinters. Dutee claimed the 200m gold medal at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in 2014, and she earned the bronze medal in the 60m (7.28 seconds) in the Asian Indoor Championships in 2016.
She became the sole Indian to win a gold medal at the World University Games in 2019 after earning two second-place medals at the Asian Games in 2018. Dutee's silver medal in the 200m at the Asian Games was the first medal for India in the event since PT Usha's gold medal in 1986.
She had secured her 100m run there at the national inter-university championships in 11.44 seconds in the month of February, and gold at the Federation Cup in 11.49 seconds in the month of March thus far in 2022. Dutee also stated that after her retirement, she intends to create the 'Dutee Chand Athletics Speed Academy' in Odisha to teach budding sprinters.
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