Anju Bobby George made history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. She won the bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 Paris Championships with a leap of 6.70 meters in the penultimate round. This landmark achievement placed India on the global athletics map. Anju’s dedication and performance inspired a generation of Indian track and field athletes.

Initially competing in heptathlon, Anju later specialized in long jump and triple jump. She set a national record in triple jump in 1999 and improved her long jump record to 6.74 m in 2001. She won bronze at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and gold at the Asian Games in Busan. Her career-best jump of 6.83 m came at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she finished sixth. Anju was honored with the Arjuna Award (2002), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2003), and Padma Shri (2004).