Preethi Pal and her sprint from superstition to superstardom
Preethi won bronze in the T35 women’s 100m – India’s first-ever Paralympics track medal.
Bengaluru Growing up, every time there was a solar eclipse, Preethi Pal’s legs were buried in cow dung pits. If the eclipse happened during class hours, her father or uncle would rush to school and whisk her away for the ritual. Her mother would be by her side, holding her as the young girl stood with legs caked in dung – rooted in a superstitious belief in the practice’s healing properties – for the duration of the eclipse. Born with weak legs that were “tedhe” (crooked), Preethi speaks of them remaining plastered for a few months. Massages were done, and she wore callipers as a child.
“I couldn’t walk properly, but I could run,” Preethi told HT.
Last weekend, the 23-year-old turned what seemed like an oxymoron into a history-making medal for the ages.
Preethi won bronze in the T35 women’s 100m – India’s first-ever Paralympics track medal. All the athletics medals India had won at the Paralympics previously came from field events. The sprinter from Muzaffarnagar, UP, then won a second bronze – in the 200m. Two medals, two personal best times, and spadefuls of history.
“Log kehte the isse sahi se chala nahi jaata, par yeh daud leti hai (People in my town would say she can’t walk, but she can run). Log yeh bhi sochte the ki yeh disabled hai, kya hi kar sakti hai (they would also wonder what can a disabled person do anyway),” said Preethi. They’re now flocking to her home to congratulate her family.
The T35 classification in para sport, which Preethi competes in, is for athletes with coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, and also includes those with cerebral palsy. In the 100m final, Preethi, running beside two Chinese runners – Rio and Tokyo paralympic medallists Zhou Xia and Guo Qianqian -- at first seemed to be a step behind Iran’s Fatimah Suwaed. Soon, the Indian, in full stride and with invisible pistons seemingly activated, flew past the Iranian to take third place. A personal best timing of 14.21. Zhou won gold at 13.58.
In the 200m final, Preethi was sandwiched between the two familiar Chinese runners – Zhou on her left and Guo on her right. It was Guo who was ahead at the start. Coming on to the home stretch, Zhou switched to flash mode and pulled away from the field, with a season’s best timing of 28.15. Preethi logged in a personal best of 30.01. The top three again were Zhou, Gou and Preethi.
Once she took to para sport, Preethi would watch videos of the 25-year-old Zhou, now a three-time Paralympic champion. “I would tell myself I have to work hard enough so that I can run in the same competition as her someday,” said Preethi, who competed alongside Zhou at last year’s Asian Para Games. That’s when she realised – “yaar yeh toh bahut tagdi player hai (she’s really strong)”.
Preethi has two younger brothers and an older sister, and belongs to a family with meagre income. Her hope now is that her historic medals can bring her a sustained source of livelihood.
“My father runs a small dairy. During Covid he was in hospital for three months. He is still unwell, has high diabetes and has to get injections often. A lot of it is caused by worrying for us. I often tell him that I will arrange for my sister’s marriage. I’ve fulfilled my dream of a Paralympics medal. My second biggest dream is to be able to organise and fund for my sister’s wedding to whoever she likes. I hope my medals can get me a government job. That is my prayer now. I have to take care of my family. I want my father to take care of his health and stay at home and my mother also should not have to go to the forest to feed our buffalo. I want to be able to give them some rest. They have struggled all their lives,” she told HT.
Preethi always loved running. She learnt of the Paralympics through social media and para-athlete Fatima Khatoon helped her with information she needed about it. She would cycle five kilometres to the Kailash Prakash stadium in Meerut to train and she did alright until she realised her timings weren’t getting better despite all her hard work and hours of training.
“I had no idea what to eat. On days that I could afford to drink a glass of juice on my way to training I would think wow I’m going to train like crazy. My strength, endurance and power were zero. It’s only after I moved to Delhi to train under coach Gajendra Singh after the Asian Games, that I started improving. Only then I realised, ek glass juice kuch nahi hota hai (one glass of juice is not enough),” she laughed. A World Championship medal followed. When she learnt no Indian had won a track medal before her 100m dash in Paris, she says was filled with josh.
She ended up winning not one, but two Paralympic medals. She wants to be able to run 100m in 13 seconds someday. Coach Gajendra was counting on a silver from her this time in the 200m.
“Her recovery wasn’t great after the previous race or she could have done even better,” he said. He trains both Preethi and his wife Simran Singh, the reigning world para champion in the T12 200m. Simran is an older sibling, training partner and idol rolled into one for Preethi. “I’ve never heard Preethi complain,” Gajendra said. “Her body is weak, especially her legs. They’re really weak. Low-volume, high-intensity speed program training is hard on her. She’ll vomit, take some rest and come back again but never say no.”
Preethi still finds it hard to walk. Running comes naturally to her.
“My legs begin to ache when I walk. I can only walk with shoes. But when I run, I feel good. I feel joy.”
