Jyothi Yarraji, the celebrated track and field athlete, who is a two-time Asian Champion and gold medalist, was also welcomed with surging joy on the ‘Women of Impact’ stage. Speaking on the toughest things she encountered to reach this point in her career, she said “For me the toughest task was to come into sports only. My parents didn’t know about athletics. Even today they don’t know how tough it is because my father used to work as a security guard and my mother is a domestic helper so when I started in school I was a very active kid. I used to go to the ground and play, at that point I realised this is so fun, it’s so amazing. When I told my parents I want to do sports, they just said no.”
Elaborating on why her parents said ‘no’, Jyothi shared “I think they don’t understand, because if I’m progressing they are the first people to be happy. I think it’s because they don’t know what sports is and if at that time women are wearing shorts or sleeveless tops people comment ‘Don’t you tell your daughter anything?’ Many people said that. I used to hide from my parents to go to training.”
The athlete also mentioned that she wrote a letter to her brother seeking permission to pursue sports, she said “I wrote in the letter please allow me one year, I’m good at sports. If any situation doesn’t go as planned, I will return back home. I will secure a national medal in a month. If I’m unable to, then you can tell me what to do. After reading the letter he laughed. He had told me countless times not to go. But despite telling and hitting me, I used to always go.”
