Ankita Dhyani Looks To Conquer Women's 5000M Race At Paris Olympics

22-year-old athlete Ankita Dhyani is set to make her Olympic debut in Paris this year with the women's Round 1 5000-meter race to be held on August 2. She is a middle and long-distance runner with a personal best of 15:28:08. Dhyani will be participating in the Olympics as a part of the Indian athletics team, which consists of 30 members. Compatriot Parul Chaudhary will be participating alongside Dhyani in the same event. 

Who Is Ankita Dhyani?

The young star from rural Uttarakhand has been known to train at altitudes as high as 1400 meters and has a lot of experience with international tournaments even at this young age.

In an interview with Indian Oil, she said, ''My journey started with the thought that I should be selected for the army. I trained with my brothers and the boys from my village. I went on the streets to practice and slowly and gradually my interest started developing in it.''

For example, at the Asian Games, she is in the top eight and has also previously secured fifth place at the 2022 Asian Games. She is also in the top eight at the World U20 Championships.

In addition to this, she is a silver medallist at the Asian Indoor Championships and a bronze medallist at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championship, according to an article by News18. Most recently, Dhyani managed to score a gold medal in the women's 5000m final in Panchkula, Haryana last month, for the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships.

She performed her personal best time, that is 15:28:0, at California in the Track Fest earlier this year, winning a bronze medal. Currently, she has a ranking of 92 in the women's 5000-meter event. The true turning point of her career was around 2022 when she secured silver medals in a series of domestic championships in the women's 5000 meters, such as the National Games and Federation Cup.

Paris Olympics 2024 

Early next month, Dhyani's career will take a large road uphill when she reaches France to compete in the 5000m event, joining world rank 29 Parul Chaudhary, making it two Indian people to compete in that event. She had reportedly not made the Olympic athletics team initially, but due to a few withdrawals, along with long jumper Jeswin Aldrin who was chosen in the same way.