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7 things to know about PT Usha, to be new Rajya Sabha MP at 11 am
PT Usha, Rajya Sabha: "Elated by wonderful wishes from all over India! Your support and faith in me will go a long way in shaping my journey forward from here…" PT Usha tweeted after being nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
PT Usha, former Olympics athlete and one of India's most celebrated sportspersons, will take oath as a member of Rajya Sabha at 11 am. PT Usha is one of four noted personalities to have been nominated by the government to the Upper House, with music maestro Ilaiyaraaja, film director and screenwriter KV Vijayendra Prasad and philanthropist PV Heggade. PT Usha was unable to attend parliament on Monday for oath-taking with other new MPs. After their nominations were announced, prime minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and hailed all four for contributions to their respective fields.
7 things to know about PT Usha:
> PT Usha was born June 27, 1964, in a small village in Kerala's Kozhikode district. She has been associated with Indian athletics since she was 15 years old and is fondly nicknamed 'Payyoli Express' for her powerful sprinting ability and also 'Queen of Indian track-and-field'.
>Her talent was spotted by athletics coach OM Nambiar, who began training her and, after collecting a big handful of medals (mostly gold) at national-level events, in 1982 won silver at the 100m and 200m events at the Asian Games in Delhi.
> In the 1983 Asian Championships in Kuwait she won her first international gold - in the 400m - and also picked up another 200m silver.
> In the 1984 Olympics in the United States, she tragically missed winning India's first medal in a track-and-field event after a photo-finish showed she finished fourth in the 400m hurdles by 1/100 second.
> PT Usha won 18 gold medals for India at international events between 1983 and 1998; the last was in the 4x100m relay at the Asian Championships in Japan. She also won 13 silver medals and three bronze medals.
> Among her achievements is participating in the setting of the national 4x100m relay record at the 1998 Asian Championships, with Valdivel Jayalakshmi, Rachita Mistry and EB Shyla.
> PT Usha was awarded the Padma Shri in 1985, and also received honorary doctorates from the Kannur University (2000), IIT Kanpur (2017), and University of Calicut (2018).
