Dutee Chand is an Indian sprinter from Odisha who specialises in the 100 metres event. She is among the fastest Indian women in track and field history and has represented India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. She is also widely recognised for her successful legal challenge before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) hyperandrogenism regulations in 2015.
| Full name | Dutee Chand |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 February 1996 |
| Birthplace | Chaka Gopalpur, Jajpur district, Odisha, India |
| Sport | Athletics (Track) |
| Event | 100 metres, 200 metres |
| Coach | Nagapuri Ramesh (longtime coach) |
| Notable distinction | First Indian woman to reach the final of a 100 m event at a global university meet; Olympic 100 m qualifier (2016) |
Dutee Chand was born into a weaver family in the village of Chaka Gopalpur in Jajpur district, Odisha. She is one of seven siblings, and was introduced to running by her elder sister Saraswati Chand, who was also a state-level athlete. Dutee began training at a state-run sports hostel in Bhubaneswar and later joined the Sports Authority of India (SAI) programme, eventually moving to Hyderabad to train under coach Nagapuri Ramesh.
Dutee came to national attention as a junior, winning the under-18 national title in the 100 m. In 2013, she became the first Indian to reach the final of a 100 m event at a global athletics meet at junior level, finishing in the top six at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk. She also won two gold medals at the 2014 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Taipei.
In 2014, shortly before the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Dutee was dropped from the Indian contingent on the grounds that her natural testosterone levels exceeded the threshold prescribed by the IAAF's hyperandrogenism regulations. She challenged the rule before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In July 2015, CAS suspended the IAAF regulations, ruling that there was insufficient evidence that elevated natural testosterone provided a competitive advantage in female athletes. The decision allowed Dutee to return to international competition and had wide-ranging implications for athletes such as Caster Semenya.
In June 2016, Dutee qualified for the Rio Olympic Games by clocking 11.30 seconds at the G. Kosanov Memorial in Almaty, Kazakhstan, becoming the first Indian woman in 36 years to qualify for the 100 m at the Olympics, after P. T. Usha in 1980. At the Rio Games she was eliminated in the heats.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, she won silver medals in both the 100 m and 200 m, and a silver as part of the 4×100 m relay team. In 2019, she won gold in the 100 m at the Summer World University Games (Universiade) in Naples, becoming the first Indian to claim a sprint gold at the event. The same year she set a new national record of 11.22 seconds in the 100 m.
She represented India again at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, competing in the 100 m and 200 m, and at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In 2023, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) provisionally suspended Dutee after a sample tested positive for a prohibited substance. The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel imposed a four-year ban, which she has appealed.
In 2019, Dutee Chand publicly disclosed that she was in a same-sex relationship, becoming the first openly gay Indian sportsperson of international standing. The disclosure followed the 2018 reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code by the Supreme Court of India.
| Event | Time | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 100 metres | 11.17 s | 2021 |
| 200 metres | 23.00 s | 2019 |
Dutee Chand's career is significant on three counts: her sustained success in sprinting, where Indian women have historically been under-represented at the global level; her landmark legal challenge that reshaped international rules on female eligibility in athletics; and her role as a public LGBTQ figure in Indian sport. Her trajectory from a weaver's family in rural Odisha to international sprinting is often cited as an example of social mobility through state sports infrastructure.