Hima Das is a 19-year-old Indian sprinter from the state of Assam. She became the first Indian woman — indeed the first ever Indian athlete — to win a gold medal in any format of a global track event at IAAF World U20 Championships when she clocked a speed of 51.46 seconds.
Born on January 9, 2000, to rice farmers in Dhing village of Assam’s Nagaon district, Das won five back-to-back gold medals in about a month in Czech Republic in July 2019.
She did her alma mater at the Dhing Public High School. There Das was interested in playing football, a sport she would play with the boys. Although she wished to continue playing football, Hima was advised to change her preference to sprinting.
It was Shamshul Sheikh, a teacher at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, who gave the most valuable piece of information to the youngster after watching her incredible speed while playing football. What followed is history.
Hima ‘s achievement is even more remarkable if we consider that she started using spikes only a couple of years ago. The eldest of the six siblings, Hima’s superior talent first came to light at an inter-district meet back in 2016.
Due to the unavailability of a professional running track, she had to practice on a muddy football field.
However, in spite of the lack of training facilities and equipment available, the resilient sprinter scalped a bronze medal in the state meet. Later that year, she reached the 100m final at the junior nationals.
In September 2018 Hima das had signed a deal with Sports giant Adidas. The company said in a statement that Hima Das will now be equipped with the best offerings from Adidas for her racing and training needs.
As we know that Adidas has an incredible track record for helping athletes across sports and enabling them to reach the peak of their career.
According to sources, Das is estimated to receive annual endorsement fee between Rs. 10 to 15 lakh from Adidas along with racing and training facilities across the globe.
