Athlete Hima Das has created history on Thursday 12th July after becoming the first athlete from India to win a gold medal at a global event. The 18-year-old Hima made this great achievement by winning women’s 400-meter race at the IAAF World U-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

The whole country is proud of Hima and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) praised the talented athlete on Twitter. However, along with some words of praise, a tweet from their official Twitter account left many netizens in anger.

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Here’s what the tweet read:

“Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too”

Athletics Federation of India’s tweet clearly mocked the athlete for her poor English which is an insult to her and people couldn’t take this.

#HimaDas speking to media after her SF win at #iaaftampere2018 @iaaforg Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u #HimaDas Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final! @ioaindia @IndianOlympians @TejaswinShankar @PTI_News @StarSportsIndia @hotstartweets pic.twitter.com/N3PdEamJen

— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018

The tweet did not go well with the social media and with people pointing out that her ability to not speak English should not take away from her achievement.

One of the tweets read, “She has landed in Tampere for displaying her talent in track and not in English. Shame on you for what you said.”

Also she comes from a very humble background & can not even speak Hindi fluently, we are applauding her effort to face journalists & trying her best to speak in English. Hope now you understand that tweet.

— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018

Another Tweep said, “She has not been featured by the IAAF for her English speaking skills,we have lot of good English speakers in India but very few who can run like her.”

After receiving such a severe backlash, AFI had no option but to make a clarification on this issue.

This is what AFI said in their clarification tweet.

“Also she comes from a very humble background & can not even speak Hindi fluently, we are applauding her effort to face journalists & trying her best to speak in English. Hope now you understand that tweet.”

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Hima termed it the biggest achievement of her life after this historic win. She further said that she had tears of joy on the podium when India’s national anthem was played.

Hima said, “Bringing a medal for the country is the biggest achievement and that is why I am very happy. I am very proud to give this gift to the people of India.”

She further added, “I wanted the Indian national anthem to be played and making that happen made me cry with joy.”

Hima thanked her parents and coaches for their support and guidance and expressed her gratitude towards people from India for showering their blessings.

Hima who clocked 51.46 seconds in the final at the Ratina Stadium to bring home the gold medal said, “I will try to give my best at the Asian Games. I don’t run after medals, I run after time.”

Many congratulations to Hima!

Published by Mamatha on 13 Jul 2018