Dutee offers to sell her SUV to meet training expenses

Bhubaneswar: India’s top sprinter Dutee Chand on Friday offered to sell her SUV to meet the expenses for her training for Tokyo Olympics that has been postponed to 2021 due to the Covid crisis.
She posted a message on her Facebook page asking interested buyers to contact her. “I want to sell my car. If anyone interested to buy, please let me know. Text me on my messenger,” Dutee wrote on her Facebook page.
Within a few minutes, her comment box was flooded with followers and friends asking her about the reason behind selling the SUV. Dutee responded, saying she need the money for training.
“As I don’t have sponsorship at the moment because of the pandemic, it’s difficult for me to bear the cost of training and diet every month. So, I have decided to sell the vehicle to meet the training and dietary expenses,” the 24-year-old athlete said.
Dutee said she has to spend around Rs 3 to Rs 3.5 lakh every month on coach, physio, diet and nutrition, which she said is difficult to bear for any athlete without sponsorship.
Dutee purchased the high-end car in November 2018. It’s a second-hand car which she had bought for around Rs 30 lakh by utilising part of the prize money she got from the state government after winning two silver medals at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018.
“Training and qualifying for Olympics is important for me than anything else at the moment. I have been practising very hard to qualify for Tokyo,” said Dutee, who resumed outdoor training in May last week at the Kalinga Stadium here, after a gap of nearly two months.
Asked whether she has approached the state government to bear her training costs, Dutee said the government had already helped her with Rs 50 lakh to prepare for the Olympics. “The state government, the sports department and my employer – Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) – have all been very cooperative whenever I have asked them for help. This time I haven’t told the state government about my problem because I understand the trouble it is going through because of the pandemic,” said Dutee.
The athlete said she has two other four-wheelers which she would use for movement within the state.
EoM