Who is Deepthi Jeevanji - who broke world record at World Para Athletics Championships

Deepthi Jeevanji won a gold medal in world record time of 55.07 seconds in the women’s 400m T20 category race at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan on Monday. She became the first Indian to win gold in track events at a World Championships.

Deepthi’s timing saw her go past USA’s Breanna Clark’s record of 55.12 seconds - set during the 2023 world championships.

Jeevanji had qualified for the final after winning her Heats race with an Asian record time of 56.18 seconds on Sunday.

With her timings in Japan, she has qualified for the Paris Paralympics later in the year.

The T20 category in para-athletics is meant for athletes who have intellectual impairment. Deepthi was born with intellectual disability, a cognitive disease which hampered her communication as well as adaptive skills.

“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,” Deepthi’s parent Dhanalaxmi told The Indian Express.

At the Para Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, Deepthi won a gold medal with an Asian record time of 56.69 seconds. At the World Para Grand Prix in Morocco, she won gold in 400m event and another yellow metal arrived at the Para Oceania-Pacific Games in Australia.

Guidance

Deepthi’s athletic talent was discovered by her school Physical Education teacher Biyani Venkateshwaralu at the Rural Development Foundation (RDF) School, when she was in Class 9 in Warangal.

She would outrace her able-bodied competitors during 100m and 200m races.

She then received coaching from Nagpuri Ramesh, the Indian Junior team coach who has also worked with Dutee Chand. He saw her compete during a state meet in 2019.

Her parents, daily wage workers struggled to make ends meet by working at farms nearby. Hailing from Kalleda in Telangana, 150 kms from Hyderabad, sending her for sports training was a pipe dream.

Additional support came from legendary shuttler Pullela Gopichand, who recommended her to undergo testing at the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disability in Hyderabad. After necessary tests, she was certified as mentally impaired, qualifying her to compete as a para athlete.

Gopichand provided financial support to Deepthi through his foundation. “We needed an international license for her and Gopichand came on board to fund her trips. We went to Morocco and Australia and got her international classification,” said Ramesh to Hindustan Times.

From the cash rewards that Deepthi received, her parents were able to buy a small piece of land to farm on their own.