New Delhi, Feb. 11 -- There was a time when people advised her parents to send her away. They mocked her appearance, questioned her future, and dismissed her potential before she had even discovered it herself. Today, those same lanes of doubt have given way to tracks of triumph, as Deepthi Jeevanji runs not just for medals- but for India.
"I used to run barefoot in school," she said ahead of the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year Awards 2025, reflecting on her childhood in Kalleda in the Warangal district of Telangana. Running was never a strategy; it was instinct. What no one could have predicted then was that the girl racing across dusty school grounds would one day represent India on the international stage in the T20 400m category.
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