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Anju Bobby George (born 19 April 1977) is an Indian former long jumper. Her bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris in 2003 was the first won by any Indian in the history of that event. She was later awarded the gold medal of the 2005 World Athletics Final, and holds the Indian record in the long jump. She achieved all this, as she revealed years afterwards, with only one kidney.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Anju Bobby George (née Anju Markose) |
| Born | 19 April 1977, Cheeranchira, Kottayam district, Kerala |
| Age | 49 |
| Sport | Athletics (long jump) |
| Personal best | 6.83 metres (2004), the Indian record |
| Major medals | World Championships bronze (2003); World Athletics Final gold (2005); Asian Games gold (2002); Commonwealth Games bronze (2002) |
| Awards | Arjuna Award (2002), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2003), Padma Shri (2004) |
| Spouse and coach | Robert Bobby George |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
She was born at Cheeranchira near Changanassery in Kerala. Her father, K. T. Markose, encouraged her in sport, and a school coach developed her talent. She began in the heptathlon, which tests seven events, and then concentrated on the jumps, setting a national record in the triple jump before choosing the long jump.
Career
Breakthrough
She set a national long jump record of 6.74 metres in 2001. In 2002 she won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, the first by an Indian woman in athletics at those Games, and the gold at the Asian Games in Busan.
Paris, 2003
To prepare for the World Championships she trained in the United States with Mike Powell, the world record holder in the men’s long jump. On 30 August 2003, in Paris, she jumped 6.70 metres to take the bronze medal. India had never before won a medal at the World Championships in athletics.
Athens and after
- **2004, Athens Olympics:** she jumped 6.83 metres, her best and still the national record, and finished sixth. After the disqualification of an American athlete for doping she was moved up to fifth.
- **2005, World Athletics Final, Monaco:** she won silver. In 2014 the Russian winner was disqualified for doping and George was awarded the gold, the first Indian to win that event.
- **2005 and 2006:** gold at the Asian Championships and silver at the Asian Games in Doha
- **2008, Beijing Olympics:** she fouled all three attempts
She has said that several of the athletes who beat her in those years were later shown to have used drugs.
One Kidney
In 2020 she disclosed that she had been born with a single kidney, a fact discovered only when she was already an international athlete, and that she had also been allergic to painkillers and prone to fatigue. She had kept it private throughout her career.
After Jumping
She worked as an officer of the Customs department in Bengaluru. With her husband she runs the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation, an academy for young jumpers; its star is Shaili Singh, who won silver at the World Under-20 Championships in 2021. She is a senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India. In 2021 World Athletics named her its Woman of the Year for her work with girls in sport.
Honours
- Arjuna Award (2002)
- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2003)
- Padma Shri (2004)
Personal Life
She married Robert Bobby George, a former national champion in the triple jump, in 2000. He gave up his own career and his job as an engineer to coach her. They have a son, Aaron, and a daughter, Andrea. Her husband’s brother, Jimmy George, was one of India’s greatest volleyball players.
Featured image: Anju Bobby George at the Asian Games in Doha, December 2006. Photo by Jyothishvijay, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.