‘I apply eyeliner and lipstick, then glue on my nails’: Asian Games silver medallist Ancy Sojan steps onto the track in her own style; says looking good helps her feel ‘cool and relaxed’
When Ancy Sojan walked onto the track at the Asian Games in Nagoya, she did not look like someone trying to disappear into the crowd.Her hair was decorated with colourful beads and ribbons. Her nails were done, her eyes lined, jewellery catching the light, and her bright smile making its way onto the giant stadium screen. Then came the long jump – and another statement.Ancy opened the women’s long jump final with a 6.49m effort, moved into the lead again with 6.53m in her fifth attempt and eventually finished with the silver medal. It was her second Asian Games medal. Two days earlier, China’s Yingying Huang had won gold with 6.55m, but for Ancy, the significance of the evening was not defined only by those two centimetres. “I am glad. This is only my second Asian Games campaign, and my second medal. I gave my best out there,” she told TOI.however, there is another reason Ancy stands out.She has made being visibly herself part of the sporting experience.
Ancy Sojan is known for bringing colourful hair, makeup and nail art to competitions.
‘I want to look as beautiful as possible’
For Ancy, getting ready for a competition is not simply a functional pre-event routine.“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,” she told Sportstar.The routine is almost ritualistic. She listens to energetic music, watches long-jump videos, gets her hair braided, applies eyeliner and lipstick and finishes by putting on her nails.“I want to look as beautiful as possible. I want to be someone who can be seen from anywhere,” she said.That last line perhaps explains Ancy better than any description of her technique.She does not appear interested in fitting into the conventional image of what an elite athlete is supposed to look like. The colourful hair, nail art, makeup, nose pin, bracelets, chains and neon shoes are part of her identity on the track. But she has also explained why she chooses them: they make her feel good.“I like playing energetic songs that get me hyped up. I’m having fun,” she said.There is something refreshingly uncomplicated about that approach. The athlete who is expected to spend hours thinking about run-ups, take-offs, strength, diet and technique also wants to enjoy getting dressed for competition.
Ancy Sojan’s 6.53m jump helped her secure the silver medal at the Asian Games.
Her performance has a personality too
That self-expression does not stop at her appearance.Ancy is known for engaging with the crowd, gesturing towards supporters and feeding off their energy. At the Asian Games, that confidence was visible from her opening attempt, when she immediately moved into the lead.It is almost as if she treats the runway as a stage – but without separating the performer from the person.That confidence has been built through a season in which she has repeatedly given herself reasons to believe.In June, Ancy broke a 22-year-old national record in women’s long jump, leaping 6.88m at the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar and surpassing Anju Bobby George’s 6.83m mark. After the jump, she spoke about what the performance meant beyond one record.“This is a statement that we are also growing like world-class jumpers. I want to be consistent like this,” she told ANI.The progression has also changed how she sees herself. Speaking after breaking the record, she said she wanted to become a “world-class jumper” and keep improving rather than treating one big performance as the destination.
From appearance to attitude, she does things her own way
There is a certain consistency in the way Ancy presents herself.She is expressive about what she wears. She is expressive about how she prepares. She is expressive when she competes. And she is equally expressive about setbacks.At the Asian Games, after Huang’s final jump moved her into gold-medal position, Ancy admitted that the result hurt.“I’m a little heartbroken for the two centimetres I missed. Until the last moment, I was in the gold medal position. So, I kept praying to god, saying please don’t let me down,” she told TOI.But the disappointment did not become the defining emotion.“I am glad. This is only my second Asian Games campaign, and my second medal,” she said, adding that she had given her best.That ability to acknowledge disappointment without allowing it to erase the achievement is another part of the personality she brings to competition.“We’re not stopping here. This season, I competed in over ten events, and my performance was consistent. I’m incredibly thankful to have achieved this much, especially given the circumstances, and equally grateful to everyone who supported me,” she said after the final.
Ancy Sojan has said she wants to be someone who can be “seen from anywhere”.
A silver medal, but a bigger introduction
Ancy’s Asian Games silver adds another major achievement to a season that has already included a national record. But what makes her particularly interesting beyond the medal table is the way she has chosen to occupy the space around her sport.She does not separate athletic discipline from personality.She can spend months working towards a better jump and still care about how she looks when she walks onto the track. She can be intensely competitive and still describe competition preparation as “having fun”. She can be disappointed by a result and, almost immediately, talk about what she has learnt from it.“Failures are inevitable, but we learn so much from them. Our time will come. Perhaps something even greater is yet to come. So, just keep going, that’s all. It’s only through losing that we truly learn how to win,” she said.For Ancy Sojan, then, the long jump is about more than how far she can travel from the take-off board.It is also about how she chooses to arrive there – colourful, confident, visibly herself and unwilling to make herself smaller just because she is competing in a sport where performance is usually measured in centimetres.And perhaps that is the most distinctive thing about her: before asking the world to notice how far she can jump, Ancy has made sure it notices who she is.
