Asian Games discus gold medallist has to repay loans totalling Rs18 lakh and is hopeful of financial support for her Incheon effort
It was 2013, a year before the Incheon Asian Games, when Seema Punia was standing at the crossroads. She was thrown out of the national athletics camp in 2011 for some unexplained reasons, but she was confident enough that she could still win medals for the country at international events.
So, she decided to follow her instincts. She approached various banks, her relatives and friends to fund her training till 2014 Asian Games. With husband Ankush Punia standing firm alongside her, India's leading discus thrower went ahead and borrowed money from every available source to fund her training.
The result is for everyone to see. Seema won gold despite the presence of two world-class Chinese discus throwers in Incheon. Even though she is now back in India and the toast of public receptions being thrown by different corporates and government organisations to honour medal winners, Seema is just counting her award money to be able to pay off her debts.
"There is still over Rs18 lakh debt on me that I want to clear as soon as possible," Seema told dna after a Samsung India function here on Monday. For those who must be wondering why the thought of this amount is troubling this gold medallist, it must be mentioned that despite many companies throwing celebratory parties for Asiad winners, mostly to extract mileage from public, there are hardly any cash awards being given to these achievers.
Monday was one such day when only a mobile phone was presented to each of the medallists.
"I was thrown out of national camp without any valid reason in 2011. After that, I have been spending my own money on training, equipment and diet. It was not possible for us to train without financial help and that's why we took money from different sources including private lenders at higher rate of interest," said Seema, who first repaid earlier loans of 2011 from the money she received for winning silver in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games.
However, all the athletes are now looking up to the sports ministry and their respective state governments to come forward and fulfil their cash award commitments. Seema, on her part, is waiting for one such cheque to come her way.
"I got down to my training the day after reaching here from Korea. I can't afford to miss a single training session because of any distraction because 2016 Rio Olympics medal is my final target," said the 31-year-old.
Seema has just not this monetary issue to resolve. She also has to represent her case before the newly-elected Haryana government to treat her on par with other athletes. After joining Haryana Police as sub-inspector in 2010, she has not been given any promotion as per the state government policy. "It was only after court orders that I got sub-inspector job. Every time I represent my case for promotion, I was told that only Asian Games gold medallist can be promoted to DSP rank. I knew it was not true if you look at the cases of other athletes. But I don't want to take any name. All I want to say is that now I'm also an Asiad gold medallist, please treat me at par," said Seema, the only individual gold medallist among Indian track and field athletes.
In a discipline like discus throw, an athlete needs huge monetary support for the simple reason that the basic footwear he or she needs costs somewhere around Rs 10,000 and has no guarantee of even lasting a day.
"At one point of time before 2010 CWG, I had no specialised throwing shoes to wear. But when I got money for winning CWG medal, I bought many pairs of shoes in one go after repaying money to banks and lenders," Seema said with a smile.
With her eyes set on Rio 2016, Asian Games gold medal will certainly play a vital role in getting her the required support from corporates and governments. One can only hope that Seema, who had to wait for 14 years till 2014 to get her state award for the best athlete, Bheem Award from Haryana government, will not have to slug too much in the next 22 months and can completely channelise her energy to train hard without the fear of any money lender in the future.
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