Kamaljeet Sandhu Biography 
Kamaljeet Sandhu is a former woman Indian athlete. She is the first Indian woman to win gold medal at Asian games, and she achieved this feat at Jakarta in 1970 making her country proud. She participated in the 400 meter race and ran the distance in 57.3 seconds. For her contributions towards Indian sports and athletics, she received Padma Shri award in 1971. She was honoured by the country soon after her glorious win at Asian games. In 1971, in 400 metre event, she was one of the finalists in the World University Games held at Turin, Italy.
Kamaljeet Sandhu hails from Punjab. Apart from athletics, she also played hockey and basketball during her younger days. She is a national-level basketball player and also played inter-college and inter-varsity hockey matches. Way back in the 1970s, Sandhu broke the glass ceiling for women sportspersons by becoming the first Indian woman athlete to win a gold at the Asian Games. It was a landmark for Indian women in athletes. She went to Bangkok with the sole aim to give her best performance and her historic win changed the perspective of coaches and officials towards women sportspersons in the 1970s and later. India has later given many great female athletes to the world of sports like P. T. Usha, Shyni Wilson etc.
She competed in two small international meets as a sort of preparation for 1970 Asiad. First one was in Malaysia, followed by Thailand and she won gold in both. It gave a lot of confidence to her. Though the coaches were confident of her podium finish, no one talked about her chances to win gold at Bangkok. But the results changed everything, and the event turned to be catalyst which encouraged many women to take the sport of athletics.
As an athlete she is best known for 400 metre events and she has registered her career best performances in this event. She participated in the Women's 400 metres at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but couldn’t make any achievement. She retired from international career the following years. She later began her second innings as a coach in the 1980s. In 1982 Asian Games, she served as the female coach of Indian sprint team which made some memorable female athletes. She had a long innings at National Institute of Sports in Patiala as a coach and retired as the in-charge of the national coaching camps.
Published: January 30, 2019
Updated: January 30, 2019
