Dutee Chand

Dutee Chand is India's first openly LGBTQ+ athlete, a sprinter who came out publicly in 2019. Born on 3 February 1996 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, she began competing at around age 13. Standing at 4'11" with an athletic build, she has defied expectations in a sport where height is often seen as an advantage.

Chand became the third Indian woman to qualify for the women's 100 metres at the Olympics, though her 11.69s preliminary run in 2016 wasn't enough to advance. In 2018, she won silver at the Jakarta Asian Games, giving India its first medal in the event since 1998. A year later, she clocked 11.32 seconds to claim gold at the Universiade, a first for an Indian sprinter. With 920k followers on Instagram, she remains a prominent figure in Indian sports.