Asian Games double silver medallist and sprinter Dutee Chand put her BMW car on sale to raise funds to meet the training costs.
“It is a very costly car which I bought at Rs 30 lakh and its maintenance has become an issue for me. Moreover, I don’t have the parking slot too to keep it as I have two more cars. So, I have decided to sell it off so that the money raised can be handy to continue training,” the 24-year-old Dutee, who has been training in Bhubaneshwar, informed
Sportstar on Saturday.
“I have to spend about Rs 1 lakh alone on diet and then have to pay salaries to my support staff including trainer and physio. It has become very difficult for me to sustain the training,” she said.
“I spent most of the cash incentives which the Odisha Government had given to me and with the postponement of the Olympics to 2021, it has become even more difficult for me to fund my training,” Dutee explained.
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What about salary? “Well, I get only Rs 60,000 per month being on the rolls of Odisha Mining Corporation which is obviously not sufficient in these times,” she said to a query.
“Definitely, I can understand these are challenging times for anyone to extend financial assistance. But being an athlete aiming to win an Olympic medal, I just cannot afford to sit back and watch in disappointment with the way things are unfolding around me,” said only Indian athlete to win a 2019 Universiade gold in sprints.
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“For me, postponement of the Olympics is the biggest jolt as I was preparing with all seriousness and intensity,” said Dutee, who became the first Indian woman athlete to qualify for the 100 m sprint event in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“The lockdown because of COVID-19 virus has put all my planning in jeopardy and I am desperately hoping for a turn-around in the fortunes to be back on track at the earliest,” she signed off.
Dutee also clarified that she declined to be in the TOPS scheme because she was being sponsored by the state government. "Since I felt the state support was adequate enough, I suggested to have someone else in the TOPS scheme of Union Ministry of Sports instead of me,” she said.
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