Anju BOBBY GEORGE

After dominating the domestic circuit, Anju Bobby George burst onto the international stage, winning the long jump gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. A few months later, she bagged gold at the Asian Games in Busan.

The year 2003 turned out to be a landmark one for both Anju Bobby George and Indian athletics.

At the 2003 world athletics championships in Paris, Anju Bobby George won bronze, finishing behind local favourite Eunice Barber and Russia’s Tatyana Kotova – the bronze medallist from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Mike Powell – the long jump world record holder and two-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist – had trained Anju Bobby George for the Paris worlds.

It was India’s first-ever podium finish at a world athletics championship.

Incredibly, Anju Bobby George found out just before the event that she had Unilateral Renal Agenesis – a rare genetic condition where the person is born with a single kidney – just before the event.

She opted to compete despite the risks and only made her condition public in 2020 – years after her retirement.

During her revelation, Anju Bobby George also informed that she injured her take-off foot when she was 17 years old, which never healed properly. She had to manage her injured ankle and kidney condition throughout her career.

On the back of her Paris triumph, the Indian jumped up to world No. 6 in the rankings – a considerable improvement from her 52nd position two years earlier.

Heading into her debut Olympics at Athens 2004, Anju Bobby George was in form and backing herself for a medal charge.

In the qualifying rounds, Anju Bobby George covered 6.69m in her first jump and made the cut for the 12-woman finals field in ninth position.

In the final round, Anju Bobby George registered a 6.83m jump in her first attempt which placed her in contention for the bronze medal. However, the Indian couldn’t better her distance in the next five attempts and had to settle for a respectable fifth-place finish.

Russia made it a 1-2-3 at the event, with Tatyana Lebedeva, Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova clinching gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Anju Bobby George, however, didn’t return empty-handed from Athens. The 6.83m attempt in the finals remained Anju’s personal best till her retirement and still stands as India’s women’s long jump national record.

At the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, Anju Bobby George narrowly missed out on yet another medal. Her 6.66m attempt was just 0.03m short of bronze medallist Yargelis Savigne of Cuba.

The Indian long jumper bounced right back, bagging the 2005 Asian championships gold at Incheon. Days later, she won gold at the IAAF World Athletics Final - a competition between eight top-ranked athletes in the world. She had initially won silver but was later upgraded to gold.

Heading into the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Anju Bobby George won a gold medal at the 2006 South Asian Championships and silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and 2007 Asian championships in Amman.

Her Beijing foray, however, turned out to be a disappointing one as she fouled all three of her attempts in the qualifying round and crashed out of the competition early.

Anju Bobby George stepped away from international athletics after Beijing but wanted one last shot at an Olympic medal at London 2012. An upper respiratory tract infection, though, cut her ambitions short and she formally retired after failing to clinch a spot at the London Games.

The tame end, though, doesn’t diminish what was an incredible career. Apart from her cabinet full of international medals, Anju Bobby George was also conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2003 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna as well as the Padma Shri in 2004.

Anju Bobby George is married to Robert Bobby George, a former national triple jump champion, who coached and guided Anju throughout her senior career. The couple has a son named Aaron and a daughter called Andrea.

She was also employed with the Customs department in Chennai until her voluntary retirement in 2020. Anju Bobby George is still involved with athletics as an administrator and mentor.

Anju Bobby George has worked as a senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India, the chairperson of TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) and an executive member of the government of India’s Khelo India project.

She also runs her academy called the Anju Bobby George Sports Foundation in Karnataka.