On the morning of September 5, 1972, Kamaljeet Sandhu stepped out of her quarters, in the games village in Munich, but something felt wrong. Over the day as the horrific events unfolded it would forever change Kamaljeet’s life.
On December 13, 1970, the mood in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, was somber. It had been raining cats and dogs since morning but by late afternoon it had stopped, Just in time for Kamaljeet to make a run for glory.
The 1970 Asian Games had 150 participants from India, out of which only two were women, Kamaljeet Sandhu and Manjit Walia. Kamaljeet was picked up for the 400-meter sprint. But who is Kamaljeet Sandhu? Let’s start at the beginning.
Kamaljeet grew up in a large house in Chandigarh, one of 4 sisters. Her grandfather was a veterinary in the army and her father Mahinder Kora had played center-forward for the Khsalsa College hockey team.
Mahinder Kora’s love for sports was limitless, whenever he found time he would gather his girls and some children from the neighborhood and head off to the fields. It’s where Kamaljeet’s love for sports grew and she did a bit of everything sprinting, jumps basketball.
In 1969, her final year at the Government’s women’s college in Chandigarh, her teacher put her name for the 400-meter sprint at the national open athletics meet in Jalandhar. It was strange that Kamaljeet had not run more than 200 meters at college events.
But Kamljeet ran anyway and it turned out to be eventful but perhaps not in the usual way. 50 meters before the finish she slumped to the ground and couldn’t finish the race. But it was more than enough to catch the attention of the national coaches.
One of them was Raja Karan Singh who asked Kamljeet to train with Ajmer Singh, who had won medals at the 1966 Asian Games. It was an unusual arrangement, a young woman training with an older male athlete, but her father was more than thrilled about the opportunity.
Kamaljeet then represented India in smaller events in Singapore and Malaysia and won. However, the Asiad was a different challenge. The favorite for the 400 m was Chi Cheng, a Taiwanese, who had won bronze at the 1968 Mexico Olympics 80-meter hurdles.
Kamaljeet took the lead at the first bend, but Chi Cheng slowly crept up on her and took the lead. But then Cheng who was carrying a small injury fell, leaving the field open for Kamaljeet’s victory. She became the first Indian woman athlete to win an individual gold medal.
Kamajeet’s miracle run was all over the news; she made it to the front page of the Times of India and Hindustan Times. She was the only member of the contingent photographed upon their return home. More was to come.
Kamaljeet’s best time in 1971 was 56.3 seconds, a good 4.3 seconds slower than Colette Besson of France who had clocked a gold-winning time of 52 seconds at the 68 Olympics. The next stop was the Olympics in Munch in 1972.
Kamaljeet got opportunities to train abroad but she was not getting ahead of herself. ‘I thought if I could make it to the finals – the first Indian woman in an Olympic final – that would be my history, my place in it.’
But she was initially not selected. It ultimately took an intervention from her father who had gone to meet the President of the IOA Raja Bhalindra Singh. Kamaljeet made it to Munich and walked with the team on Opening day.
The uncertainty leading up to the games, however, meant that she was very far from her best. On September 2, she finished 7th out of 8 contenders clocking in at 57.74, 4 seconds slower than her time in Bangkok.
But her Olympic journey was not over yet, three days later as she stepped out to have breakfast, she noticed a man in dark clothes wearing a ski mask looking out of one of the balconies, a picture that would haunt her and the rest of the world for years to come.
Gunfire was heard, Kamaljeet and many like her were told to stay put. For several hours nobody knew what was going on exactly. The next day statements were made by the German Police, 17 people were killed 11 Israeli athletes, five Palestinian terrorists, and one policeman.
For Kamaljeet, the horrifying events at the Munich Olympics only fuelled a sense of irrelevance in her. Months after she came back home she retired from track athletics, she was only 25 at the time. But she did shine one more time, many years later.
India was hosting the 1982 Asiad and before the games, the Union Minister in charge Vidya Charan Shukla had called for a meeting of coaches and bureaucrats. Kamajeet who was attending the meeting as a coach is said to have spoken her mind.
‘We could easily double our medals if the women do well’. India did double their medal tally with the women winning 14 of them. Among the medal winners was a young sprinter from Kerala P.T. Usha, who would go on to create history at the LA Olympics a couple of years later.
Kamaljeet held the record in both the 200 and 400 meters for almost 10 years. Some whispered behind her back for being too snobbish or privileged, but for her to compete at the highest level at such a young age was no mean feat. She ran so that others could run faster.
Sources:
The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India through the Lens of Sport by Sohini Chattopadhyay
Image attributes: femina.wwmindia.com/content/2021/m; Wikimedia Commons; ESPN: The Hindu photo archives
