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World Athletics Day: Awe-inspiring stories of para athletes
This World Athletics Day, we bring you stories of five para athletes who used their grit and determination to be an inspiration to others around them
What does it take to become successful despite facing physical disability? Be it batting disability or societal norms, some world-beater para athletes have challenged various obstacles en route glory and won over the naysayers with spirited showings.This World Athletics Day, we bring you stories of five para athletes who used their grit and determination to be an inspiration to others around them.
Shekar Goud
From being pronounced dead and waking up in a mortuary to losing his legs in an accident, Goud is a mountaineer from Telangana who became India’s first triple amputee to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in African continent. He narrates his story not with self-pity, but almost like a joke, albeit a cruel one. “In 2006 I was sitting on a wall adjacent to an electrical transformer when I slipped and fell down. I was surrounded with electrical wires which I held and that changed my life forever.” He regained consciousness due to hunger pangs only to find himself in the mortuary of a government hospital. He says, “I had not eaten anything for more than 24 hours and had lost significant amount of blood. My right arm, left leg and right foot was impacted badly. My right arm became just like a piece of flesh with no movement at all in it.” His chances of survival was just 10 percent but he didn’t lose hope and has his arm amputated with 15 surgeries. He says, “Despite all these, I didn’t give up on life and pursued sports to rebuild my confidence and become a motivation for people. My first attempt in sports was in 2014 when I ran a marathon after which I was sponsored for my walking leg and running blade. Since then I have participated in 21 marathons and various cycling races and rides. I did rock climbing, cave walk, swimming and badminton.” Goud is also India’s first triple amputee to scale the 15,500-ft tall Mount Elbrus in Russia.
Vivek Chikara
The para archer was just 26 years old when he had his amputation in left leg after a fatal truck accident left him disabled. He found solace in archery and soon the bow and arrow became his source of strength and inspiration. He says, “I always had an interest towards sports but life never gave me a chance. After amputation, I promised myself that I will be a sportsman and started doing archery. I didn’t to give people a chance to look down upon me. I first researched about a sport where my upper body could be used and no running involved. That’s when I picked on archery.”
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Chikara never saw himself as a disabled and wanted to do things that even abled people can’t. “If you think yourself as disabled then the world will think of you like that as well. You just need to know you can do anything. All it needs is dedication, determination and the will to suffer the pain life throws at you.” He has won a gold in the men’s recurve open event at the Asian Para Archery Championships against China among others.
Major DP Singh
In 2009, a young wounded unknown soldier, an amputee, was hopping on one leg, in gruesome pain hell bound to reach his destination. It wasn’t a war scene but the Delhi Half Marathon, in which he was scripting history of becoming 1st Indian Amputee to complete 21 km of half marathon. Singh who was severely injured during the Kargil war and lost one of his legs says, “Inspiration for me is about living a qualitative life. I was only 25 years old and 1 year into the army service when the incident happened. After my amputation, I promised myself I’ll not compromise with the quality of my life. Everything starts and ends in mind first so unless you aspire to be something, you will never be able to reach that place.”
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He wanted to be an inspiration to others so he took up running. “Running was a part and parcel of my military life. I found the society looking down upon me because of my disability. They thought a disable is dependent. As a soldier I wanted to change that mindset. For an amputee, the most difficult thing is to go for a long distance run and I chose exactly that.” He says disability is in mind, not body parts. “I gave myself more challenges by going on a high altitude marathons. I am what I am because of the training of the armed forces.” He also runs an NGO where they use sports to empower and build inner confidence in the amputees or person with disabilities. He has also done 8 solo sky diving jumps till now.
Devendra Jhajharia
The paralympic javelin thrower is the first Indian Paralympian to win two gold medals at the paralympics. He says, “I had nothing to lose. I lost my hand when I was just 9 years old. I started my life from zero. I took up sports because people used to mock me that I am weak and dependent due to my disability. And that exact thing made me a champion.”
He wanted to play for the country and so in 2002, he participated in Para Asian Olymics. “I broke a new record there. In fact, I have broken 3 world record till now. My medal is totally dedicated to my struggles.”
He was also awarded the Padma Shri and Khel Ratna.
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Suvarna Raj
The medal winning para table tennis player might be on wheelchair, but that didn’t stop her from being optimistic towards life. “Society has a mindset problem for people like me. They constantly nudged me to get married. So I tried to create a revolution and change that,” she says. Her main struggle was accessibility - from the time she started until now. “Stadiums and roads aren’t accessible for us. And when a person is on wheelchair, it’s even more struggle because you can’t just take any public transport.”
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