ZEE EXCLUSIVE: Meet Revathi Veeramani – A sprinter who slept hungry, ran without shoes, & yet she qualified for Tokyo Olympics

Raised in a very poor family in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, Revathi, the first of two daughters, lost her parents at a very young age and was brought up by her grandmother.

Had her grandmother, her only guardian paid heed to relatives and other villagers of Sakkimangalam, 23-year old Revathi Veeramani would have been living a different life today, perhaps, as a married woman. Now, she’ll have more than a billion hearts rooting for her, as she dons the India jersey and races for the country in the 4x400m mixed relay event at the Tokyo Olympics, after securing her berth recently. The sprinter who is making her Olympics foray revealed this and much more about her life in an exclusive conversation with Zee Media. Born in a very poor family in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, Revathi, the first of two daughters, lost her parents at a very young age and was brought up by her grandmother K. Aarmmal. Struggling to make ends meet and with even a single meal too hard to get, their grandmother, had no option but to leave the girls in a Government Hostel. From their second grade until completing their twelfth grade, the sisters remained in the hostel and carried on with their education, barely meeting their grandmother once a month.  While she had been taking part in school-level track events, it was during 12th grade that Revathi took part in a state-level 100m dash. Despite running barefoot, she put a stunning performance and made the finals, thus impressing Mr. K. Kannan, an athletics coach, who spotted her talent.