Mocked her for looks, daily wage labourer's daughter Deepthi Jeevanji breaks world record, wins gold in Para Athletics
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Tokyo, May 22: In an inspiring achievement for herself and India, Deepthi Jeevanji, a daughter of daily-wage labourers from Telangana’s Warangal, bagged the gold medal with a world record time of 55.07 seconds in the women's 400m T20 category race at the World Para Athletics Championships in Japan.
Deepthi broke the earlier world record of 55.12 seconds set by USA’s Breanna Clark. Aysel Onder of Turkey won the silver (55.19) while Lizanshela Angulo of Ecuador (56.68) won the bronze.
The 20-year-old’s achievement stands out as exceptional, as she fought against all odds to achieve this feat, coming from an underprivileged family. Just a few years ago, Jeevanji couldn't even afford a bus ticket to Hyderabad for training. Meanwhile, the T20 classification is for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
“She was born during the solar eclipse and her head was very small at birth along with the lips and nose being a bit unusual. Every villager who saw her and some of our relatives would call Deepthi pichi (mental) and kothi (monkey) and tell us to send her to an orphanage. Today, seeing her become the world champion in a far-off country proves that she is indeed a special girl,” an emotional Dhanalaxmi told The Indian Express from village Kalleda in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.
Deepthi’s athletic journey was also supported by the Gopichand-Mytrah Foundation, an athletics talent search program run by coach Pullela Gopichand.