Shaili Singh - The Role Model Gen Z Deserves

The long jump prodigy is all muscles and manifestations. A girl from Jhansi with her eyes on the mark, navigating the idea of presentation vs performance and the mental math of Instagram-distractions.

- Snigdha Ahuja

It's a searingly hot afternoon in Delhi, with clear skies and a dry, parched feeling in the air. We have decided to shoot at a sports stadium—a decision lauded by no one but this writer, now practicing butterfly strokes in the cesspool of her own sweat. While the crew finds novel ways to steer clear of a heatstroke (there is ice and handheld fans involved), Shaili Singh is sitting in a makeshift tent to finish her makeup, eyes glued to the phone screen. There's an athletics championship underway, and the competition is close—her eyes light up instantly as a player leaps into the sky. No layer of subtle sheen on her eyes or dewy pink on the lips matches the game-set-sparkle glow.

Born in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, Singh is a long jump prodigy. At 21, she has a vault of medals to back that qualification—in June, a silver at the Taiwan Athletics Open that followed a bronze at the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea, just weeks before. Among this year's biggest win, however, was a gold at the Federation Cup in Kerala, where Singh broke ace athlete Anju Bobby George's 23-year-old meet record. What made the deal extra sweet was the fact that George, the first Indian athlete ever to win a medal at the World Championships in Athletics (Paris, 2003), is also her mentor and coach.

Scouted at the age of 14 by George and her husband (also her former coach) Robert Bobby George, Singh now lives and trains at their foundation in Bengaluru, away from her home, as her mother and two siblings cheer from afar. It's evident that the Gen Z athlete has grown leaps and bounds (pun, expected) since she started training, and today, the sweet-voiced, tall girl is more than just her fiery landings. She is a lesson in building muscle, literally and metaphorically.