Doha silver medallist to undergo diploma course in athletics from NIS.
Remember Santhi Soundarajan, the Indian middle-distance athlete who won a silver medal in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, but failed a gender test and was subsequently banned from competing by the Athletics Federation of India? Stripped of her medal, disgraced, reviled and abandoned by all, the last time Soundarajan was in the news (almost a year ago) when a horrified nation watched the impoverished athlete earning a livelihood as a daily-wager in a brick kiln in a remote Tamil Nadu village.
Though there was much outrage and anger amongst the sporting fraternity over the callous attitude of the sports mandarins while dealing with “gender issues” and the society in general that treats its out-of-favour sporting heroes with disdain and disregard, nothing came of it. Contrast this with Caster Semenya of South Africa, also a middle-distance runner, who lost the gold she won in Berlin World Championship 2009 after she failed a similar gender test. But her nation rallied around her to safeguard her dignity, her rights and position in world sports. She was also her country’s flag-bearer at the London Olympics 2012.
A year on, the tide seems to be turning in Santhi’s favour. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has finally woken up to her plight and has decided to accept her plea of allowing her to undergo a diploma course in athletics from the National Institute of Sports (NIS).
dna has learnt that SAI director general Jiji Thomas has also accepted Santhi’s request to shift her to Bangalore from the originally-allotted centre at Patiala. It has also been decided in principle to allot Santhi a separate room during her diploma in Bangalore, outside the hostel complex, to safeguard her from any uncomfortable situation.
“Santhi’s home (in Villupuram district in TN) is close to Bangalore and that was basically the reason to allow her to undergo her diploma there. As far as accommodating her in a separate room, this was also accepted keeping in mind her situation,” a senior SAI official said on Tuesday.
It must be mentioned here that this would be Santhi’s second chance to get an honourable job. The first time was soon after the Doha Asiad, when she was recruited by the TN police. But the joy was short-lived as she was dismissed from service a couple of months later after it was found during a medical check that she was a transgender. The final admission interviews to the NIS course are slated for July 3.
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