Paris Olympics-bound Jyothi Yarraji does not have to look far for inspiration.

She has someone in her home whose never-say-die attitude in the face of adversity gives the 24-year-old hurdler the courage to scale new heights.

Kumari, her mother, worked as a domestic help and hospital cleaner in Visakhapatnam to support the family. The struggle and hardships she faced have made her daughter what she is today.

“In the past, I thought too much, was too much worried because of my family, my personal life and my background, but I have learnt a lot,” Jyothi said during a virtual media interaction on Wednesday.

“In bad situations, my mom always tells me to keep going forward because there’s no point thinking about the present, past and future. She tells me ‘You work for yourself, whatever’s the result we will take it’. Before a competition, she never tells me to
win a medal, to win a gold for that matter. She will instead tell me to go, be healthy and self-satisfied with whatever I am doing. That is why I always go forward with a positive mindset.”

Jyothi, who is supported by the Reliance Foundation and trains at its high-performance centre in Bhubaneswar under coach James Hillier, will be the first
Indian to participate in the 100-metre hurdles at the Paris Olympics after securing a berth through the world ranking quota.

The qualification window for the athletics events for the Olympic Games ended on June 30. However, World Athletics officially confirmed the final Road to Paris standings in early July. There, Jyothi occupied the 34th position in the women’s 100m hurdles to make the cut-off among 40 athletes.

Jyothi could have sealed a place on her own but a scary fall — and a hip flexor injury — in May during the Monet Grand Prix in Finland dented her hopes. She ran 12.78s and was unlucky to miss the mark by just one-hundredth of a second.

The young hurdler admitted that she was nervous after injuring herself. “It was not good to get injured just before the Olympic Games,” she added. “I worked on my meditation and breathing. I took one step at a time and made a comeback in the National Inter-State Championships (in Panchkula) in June. The injury was actually a good learning experience for me.”

She admitted that there will be pressure during her debut Olympics and meditation will help her stay calm and focused. “I don’t have any experience of (competing in the) Olympics but I am confident it will go well. I have the experience of Asian Championships, Asian Games and World Championships and hope to take my plus points from there to the Olympics,” the Hangzhou Asian Games 100 metres hurdles silver medallist said.

“It will be a tough (in Paris). There will be pressure but I will try to concentrate on my race so that I can reproduce what I had done in training.”