Ancy Sojan chases a place in history with Asian Games gold and 7m
Focused transformation: At the start of the 2026 season, Ancy lost eight kilos, dropping from 63kg to 55kg, while her body-fat percentage fell from 26 to 13. | Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
Focused transformation: At the start of the 2026 season, Ancy lost eight kilos, dropping from 63kg to 55kg, while her body-fat percentage fell from 26 to 13. | Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
Even before she jumped, Ancy Sojan was hard to overlook. Standing at the top of her mark on the synthetic runway at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium during the Inter-State Athletics Championships a few weeks ago, she cut a striking figure — electric blue acrylic nails, bold eye shadow and lipstick, neon yellow spikes, a stark white headband, large hoop earrings, layered gold chains and jangling bracelets. She really is one of the most distinctive figures in Indian track and field.
And that’s precisely how Ancy likes it. She considers herself more than just a long jumper.
“I want people to notice me. I feel like I’m a performer as much as an athlete. Like a magician,” she tells Sportstar. “I want to get the audience excited. I love every moment I’m on the field. I want the spectators to be amazed by what I’m doing. I love their eyes on me when they’re clapping and cheering. I want them to say, ‘That’s insane. It’s better than watching it on video!’”
Her appearance, however, is only part of what makes her stand out. The 25-year-old heads to the Asian Games as one of India’s leading medal prospects in athletics. At Bhubaneswar, Ancy smashed one of the longest-standing records in Indian sport, leaping 6.88m to erase Anju Bobby George’s 6.83m mark, which had stood since the 2004 Athens Olympics. Her jump is the best in Asia this year, 12cm clear of the next-best mark, and the second-best by an Asian jumper in the last 33 years.
When she steps onto the field at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, expect Ancy to be blinged out.
The nails, earrings, chains, hair and makeup are not merely accessories. They are part of how Sojan prepares herself to compete. Even her spikes come with their own rules. At Bhubaneswar, she had a new pair.
“I have one set that I keep just for competitions. I never take them to the training area,” she says. “I wanted that new feeling, an extra something for this competition.”
The nails too were chosen to match her blue competition kit. “They’re very attractive and you can see them from far away. They make me feel more confident.”
On competition mornings, the transformation takes about an hour.
“Doing my makeup on the morning of a competition is like getting ready for me. I feel very cool and relaxed when I do it. I like playing energetic songs that get me hyped up. I’m having fun. I watch long jump videos. I get my hair braided, then I apply eyeliner and lipstick. Finally, I glue on my nails.
“I want to look as beautiful as possible. I want to be someone who can be seen from anywhere.”
After her events, she likes to go back and watch herself.
“I’m obsessed with how I look. I’m obsessed with my body and muscles. I love the intensity with which I run down the runway and then take off. I look at my eyes and how focused they are. There’s this madness and aggression, and I love seeing that.”
There is no embarrassment in that ambition.
Ancy has heard people say she is showing off. She knows there are those who believe an athlete should simply compete and let the performance speak for itself. But she sees no contradiction between looking good and wanting to be taken seriously. Ancy herself admits to being a fan of long jumper Malaika Mihambo’s hoop earrings and sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s colourful braids. But she is also clear that she is neither adapting nor inventing a persona.
“This is who I am.”
No more in the shadows: At the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, Ancy leapt 6.88m to erase Anju Bobby George’s long-standing national record of 6.83m. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
No more in the shadows: At the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, Ancy leapt 6.88m to erase Anju Bobby George’s long-standing national record of 6.83m. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
Ancy grew up in Nattika, a fishing village on the Arabian Sea in Kerala’s Thrissur district. She is the daughter of an autorickshaw driver. Her first coach, too, drove rickshaws. Hers is as modest a background as they come. Yet, there were signs of the personality that would eventually become one of her trademarks.
“I think I’ve always been this way. When I was a kid, I was a dancer. I was always in school plays and skits.”
During one play, she was supposed to be pushing another girl on a swing. Instead, she spotted a cameraman.
“I was just posing for the camera! So I’ve always been like that since childhood. I’ve always loved the camera. They say, ‘The moment the cameraman arrives, she starts posing!’”
There was even a brief possibility that the camera might have taken her away from athletics.
When she was young, Ancy had long hair that fell below her waist. Filmmakers looking for a young girl with long hair heard about her and approached her mother about an audition.
But by then, she had started athletics. Her coach told her she needed to cut her hair if she wanted to train properly.
“So when they came for the audition, my mother told them they were a week late! I’d already gone into sports.”
She occasionally wonders what might have happened had she gone to that audition.
“When I first heard I wasn’t going to go for that film audition, I was really unhappy. But now I think I’ve done okay. I’m still getting in front of a camera. It’s just a different way. I’m still travelling around the world and people still want to see me.”
Athletics gave her another stage. And as far as she can remember, she has always liked to perform.
“I remember I used to put bangles on my hands and run in sub-district competitions because I liked the sound they made when I ran down the runway. That’s the kind of person I am.”
She laughs when she remembers how people reacted.
“A lot of people judged me for it. They would ask, ‘Why is this young girl wearing so many chains?’ But I never bothered. It’s my life. I love wearing jewellery and make-up. What is it to you? It makes me feel confident and I think it’s cool.
“And it’s not as if I don’t perform. I know how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am now.”
Away from the spotlight
For someone with such an obvious inclination for the limelight, Ancy admits that she did not enjoy waiting in the wings. Despite her accomplishments — by 2023, she was already an Asian Games silver medallist at Hangzhou — there was a time when she felt she was living in the shadow of other athletes.
One of them was compatriot Shaili Singh, herself a junior world silver medallist who was considered the heir apparent to Anju Bobby George. Anju herself thought as much. After Shaili jumped 6.76m to move to second on the Indian all-time list, Anju told Sportstar she expected Shaili to break her national record one day.
Ancy admits she noticed this.
“I know a lot of the attention was on other jumpers. At that time, it felt a little strange. I was wondering what I needed to do to make people notice me as well.”
Few can doubt Ancy’s willingness to back up her self-belief. For all the attention she pays to her appearance, there is little frivolity in the way she approaches her sport.
In 2025, Ancy was diagnosed with PCOS, a hormonal condition that caused her to gain weight rapidly. The extra kilos weighed her down and her form dipped unexpectedly. After tests finally identified the cause, Ancy underwent an intense training and diet regimen to get into the shape she wanted.
“I love rice and biryani, but I completely cut everything like that out of my diet. I knew that if I wanted to be a world-class jumper, I had to make sacrifices.”
Dream night: Ancy won silver with a 6.63m jump at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Dream night: Ancy won silver with a 6.63m jump at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
At the start of the 2026 season, the change has been dramatic. Ancy lost eight kilos, dropping from 63kg to 55kg, while her body-fat percentage has fallen from 26 to 13.
As she got into the best shape of her career, Ancy soared, capping it with the stunning performance in Bhubaneswar.
“I wanted to make a statement. This is a record; now they have to consider me too. I am also special. Before, there were people saying, ‘She’s showing off so much and she’s only the third-best Indian jumper.’ But now I’m the best. So what are you going to say now?”
The reaction to her jump was overwhelming.
“I saw that my coach was happy. People were blowing whistles. When I looked at my phone, there were so many messages — be it on WhatsApp or Instagram. Everywhere I looked, I could see my photo.”
But what stayed with her was not the attention itself.
“The thing I felt was that the national record is in my name. 6.88m! It’s such a big number.”
Bigger dreams
The number is big enough to raise the question of whether Ancy has peaked too early, at a domestic meet rather than an international competition. Those who know her say that is unlikely.
“I’ve seen Ancy for a long time. She’s someone who doesn’t change her intensity. She’s the same everywhere. She could jump a national record in a district meet or at the World Championships. If she’s feeling good, she’s going to jump big,” says State-mate and one of India’s top men’s long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar.
What better place to make another big jump than Nagoya? And while India will be hoping for her to win gold, Ancy is already thinking beyond it.
“I’m looking at the Asian Games not just as a competition in itself, but because the qualification period for the next World Championships will begin after that. I need to repeat my jump over there. The qualification standard for that competition is 6.86m. I want to do these kinds of jumps.
“Because I’ve passed 6.88m, it won’t feel like something difficult to do at the Asian Games either. I’ve already done it, so I’m confident.”
Her confidence is not confined to Asia. The 6.88m has taken her into the world’s top 10.
“There was a time when I was 80th in the world. But I’m also getting confident that I can compete with them and show that India’s not that far behind.”
Ancy knows others are already taking notice of her. At the Asian Indoor Championships earlier this year, she says the Chinese audience loved what they saw.
“I even gifted some of my ornaments to one of the Chinese players, Shiqi Xiong [who won the gold medal and who is expected to be Ancy’s biggest challenge in Nagoya]. I gave her some of the rings and chains I was wearing. She likes that stuff a lot.”
In India, too, her personality has admirers.
After setting the national record at 6.88m, Ancy now aims to the be the first Indian woman to breach the 7m mark in long jump. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
After setting the national record at 6.88m, Ancy now aims to the be the first Indian woman to breach the 7m mark in long jump. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
“I know there are a lot of young athletes who look up to me. They’re willing to let their personalities come out more as well. And now that I have the national record, no one can say that the two can’t go together.”
And there is something even bigger on her mind.
When she closes her eyes, Ancy sees it clearly: 7 metres.
When she first arrived at the National Camp, she told coach Anoop Joseph that she wanted to jump that distance. “He was thinking, ‘Who is this little girl who thinks she’s going to jump 7m?’”
Even with the national record to her name, Ancy wants that 7m mark.
“6.88 is a number, but 7m is a brand. It’s a magical mark. It’s like being the first person in space. I want to be the first Indian to do it.
“I want to, of course, do well in the big tournaments, but I really want to jump 7 metres. When people think of who got to that mark, I want them to look at me and say, ‘It’s the one and only Ancy Sojan.’”
Published on Sep 15, 2026
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