JAT Bhawna

General
OCCUPATION
She combines her athletics career with her job as a ticket collector for Indian Railways in Howrah, India, and also takes care of one of her brothers who has an intellectual impairment. Ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games, she was given the chance to train with coach Gurmukh Sihag in Rohtak, which is on the other side of the country close to New Delhi. She was initially unsure whether she would be able to take advantage of the opportunity but one of her other brothers, who has also competed as an athlete, encouraged her to make the move. "I was very confused about what to do. I knew that I couldn't improve in [Howrah] because the weather makes it very hard to train and recover. At the same time, my eldest brother [who has an intellectual impairment] and I had already taken a loan to treat him. I knew that if I wanted to train with coach Sihag in Rohtak, I would have to spend money on accommodation, diet and kit. My other brother was working in Jaipur. He was also an athlete but had quit in order to help me focus on my career. This time he told me not to worry. There were many other people who told me it was the wrong decision [to train in Rohtak] and many people laughed at me. But I had to give myself the chance to qualify [for the 2020 Olympic Games]." (Facebook profile, 23 Feb 2023; olympics.com, 04 Aug 2021; espn.in, 16 Feb 2020; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 15 Feb 2020)

She and teammates Ravina and Munita Prajapati won India's first medal in the women's 20km team event at the world race walking team championships when they claimed bronze at the 2022 edition of the tournament in Muscat, Oman. (olympics.com, 05 Mar 2022; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 04 Mar 2022)