Quick Facts
Biography
Manpreet Kaur (born 5 March 1990) is an Indian professional Olympic shot putter from Ambala. Her gold medal winning performance of 18.86m at Asian Grand Prix in Jinhua, China 2017 turned out to be a world leading throw, taking her to the No 1 spot in the world rankings. She also holds Indian national record 17.96m in Women's Shot Put. Kaur was qualified to represented India at Summer Olympics at Rio 2016 in shot put.
Early life
Kaur is the eldest of three siblings, her father was a farmer and died when she was 13 and in 2006 her mother was paralysed. She developed an interest in athletics through her brothers who were also into sports. One of our cousin brothers was a university-level 100m sprinter and other is a discus thrower, while her sister-in-law was also a Shot putter. She initially trained for a year in the 100m, but her brother felt she would do better in shot put and she switched. She hails from Sahauli village from Patiala and works at the Indian Railways.
Career
Kaur placed 9th in the 5th IAAF World Youth Championships in 2007 at Ostrova. In 2010, she took a 3-year hiatus and returned to break an 18-year-old national record in women's shot put. In 2015, she won the Gold medal at National Open Athletics Championship at Kolkata.
2016 Summer Olympics
Kaur was the only Indian woman to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics in her field. She scored a 17.96m throw at the 55th National Open Athletics Championship in Kolkata.
Asian Grand Prix Athletics
Kaur clinched a gold in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix Athletics Meet with a national record and world season-leading effort. She came up with her best throw of 18.86m. With this performance, she also qualified for the IAAF World Championships to be held in August in London. The entry standard for women's shot put in the World Championships stands at 17.75m. Kaur later took the Gold medal at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Odisha in July. Kaur tested positive for dimethylbutylamine on multiple occasions in 2017.
Personal
She is married to Karamjeet Singh, a university level shot putter who is also her trainer. The couple have a daughter.