Fondly known as the Indian FloJo- after the beautiful American Olympic champion Florence-Griffith Joyner, Ashwini Nachappa was hailed as one of the most glamorous personalities in Indian athletics. Ashwini Nachappa is a former athlete and an Indian film actress from the state of Karnataka. She gained popularity around the late 1980s after outrunning P.T. Usha on two separate occasions.
Early Life of Ashwini Nachappa
Born on 21st October, 1967, Ashwini Nachappa is from Karnataka in the Kodagu district. She lived in Kolkata for 6 years but later relocated to Bengaluru, where she along with her sister Pushpa received training under Mohender Singh Gill.
Career of Ashwini Nachappa
The turning point in the career of Ashwini Nachappa was in the year 1990 during the Open National Championship at New Delhi where she ran a classic 200m race to dethrone the Payyoli Express, P.T. Usha to the second place. Ashwini registered a timing of 24.07s while Usha could clock 24.12s. Barely 2 weeks after this, at the Permit Meet in New Delhi, Ashwini again defeated Usha. Thus she became the first Indian sprinter to beat P.T. Usha twice in a year.
Apart from sports, Ashwini Nachappa is famous in the South Indian film industry and has acted in a handful of Telegu films including her own 1991 biographical film titled Ashwini, for which she received the state Nandi Award for Best Debut Actress. Few of her other films include Inspector Ashwini (1993), Aadarsham (1993), Miss 420 (1995) and Andaroo Andare (1996).
Ashwini Nachappa is a noted social worker and educationist and is currently the president of the Bangalore Urban District Athletics Association. Currently, she is an active member of the Clean Sports initiative which is an organisation aiming to address the problem of drug use among athletes and facilitate better management of Olympic sports in India.
Achievements of Ashwini Nachappa
Recipient of the Arjuna Award in 1988, listed below are some of the impressive achievements of Ashwini Nachappa:
In 1984 and 1986, Ashwini Nachappa represented India in the South Asian Federation Games hosted in Nepal and Bangladesh respectively where she won 2 silver medals.
In 1988, the South Asian Federation Games was hosted in Pakistan, where Ashwini Nachappa won 3 gold medals.
In 1986, she stood 6th in the long jump in the Asian Games held in South Korea.
In 1990, Ashwini won silver medal in 4 X 100 m relay in the Asian Games held in Beijing, China.
Other than these, Ashwini Nachappa has been a member of the 4 X 400 m relay in the World Championships of 1987 and 1991 respectively.
Personal Life of Ashwini Nachappa
Ashwini Nachappa was married in the year 1994 to a coffee planter and timber merchant from Coorg named Datta Karumbaiah. They have been happily married for almost 25 years and have 2 daughters. After her retirement as a sportswoman, she and her husband started a sports academy.
