Forbes India 30 Under 30 Class of 2024 has got an impressive group of entrepreneurs, professionals, designers, influencers, and sportspersons who have overcome the odds to follow their passion and cement their position in their respective fields. Parul Chaudhury and Jyothi Yarraji, athletes in the Indian contingent participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics, feature in the sports category with their inspiring stories.
Parul Chaudhary
It was only 24 hours after Parul Chaudhary, 28 won a silver medal in the 3,000m steeplechase at the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, she stood competed in 5,000m race and clinched the gold.
She became the first athlete in both women’s steeplechase and 5,000m in the Asiad. She also went on to become the first Indian woman to win a 5,000m gold in the Asian Games. A former international athlete and the Haryana athletics coach, Jaiveer Singh has trained Chaudhary since 2021 and said that she would often practice harder than his male competitors but would stumble at competitions. However, she has managed to change that and made it to the list with other successful stars.
Sumit Antil
Sumit Antil is a 25-year-old Paralympian and javelin thrower who has set new national records and become a world record holder and gold medalist Paralympian. He has consistently broken records since his first national championship and made history in the F64 category of Para javelin throw at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Italy in 2019.
Antil has continued his winning streak at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, where he won gold. In 2023, he set a new world record and won gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games with the farthest throw in Para Games history at 73.29m. As per coach Arun Kumar, new athletes are learning from Sumit to focus less on medals and more on breaking world records and making India proud.
Jyothi Yarraji
Jyothi Yarraji, 24 is currently the country’s fastest hurdler and has won a silver at the recent Asian Games. Athletics director of the Reliance Foundation, James Hillier has said that he believes “she is by far the best”.
With the help of Hillier, she has managed to overcome the hindrances in the form of chronic injuries. In the first competition with Hillier as her coach, she recorded a timing of 13.79 seconds; this August, it went down by a full second—an impressive margin in sprint events—when she clocked 12.78 at the World University Games in Chengdu, 0.01 seconds short of the Olympics qualification mark.
