It was the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar M Karunanidhi who bestowed a semblance of honour in the lives of the physically challenged people when he announced that they be addressed as ‘Differently-abled’ and not as ‘disabled’ or ‘handicapped’ to remove the social stigma attached to such descriptions that sound demeaning.
Kalaignar firmly believed that the ‘special people’ were blessed with adept talents. His view was vindicated again at the Tokyo Paralympics, where Indian participants came out with flying colours even as the curtains on the international quadrennial sports event came down on September 5.
Kalaignar firmly believed that the ‘special people’ were blessed with adept talents. His view was vindicated again at the Tokyo Paralympics, where Indian participants came out with flying colours even as the curtains on the international quadrennial sports event came down on September 5.
Close on the heels of India’s good tidings at the Tokyo Olympics – winning seven medals – one Gold, two Silver and four Bronze, the best ever medal haul in the Olympics, it was the turn of the differently-abled sportspersons to bring laurels to the country. Showcasing a sparkling performance, the differentlyabled sportspersons won 19 medals – five gold, eight silver and six bronze, also the best ever medal haul in Paralympics. It was an exemplary show and the Indian contingent won all-round applause.
A glimpse at the origin of the Paralympic Games showed that it had grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948 to become one of the largest international sporting events by early 21st century.
From about 400 athletes with disabilities from 23 countries in 1960, it has grown by leaps and bounds. The Paralympic Games are organized in parallelwith the Olympic Games. Impairment types such as impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature and ataxia to vision impairment. These categories were further broken down into classifications, which varied from sport to sport.
More than 4,000 differently-abled athletes from 162 countries strived for honours at the Tokyo Paralympics, which featured 539 events in 22 sports. This time, ‘Sailing’ and ‘Sevena-side Football’ gave way to Badminton and Taekwondo, which made their debut. India sent its biggest contingent of 54 para-athletes across nine sporting disciplines at the 16th Games held between August 24 and September 5. India represented both Badminton and Taekwondo.
Since making its debut in the 1968 Paralympics, India had won 12 medals in total till the 2016 Rio edition with the best being four medals – two gold, one silver and one bronze at the Rio Paralympics. After drawing a nil in debut, India won gold in the very next Games, in the 50- meter freestyle swimming, Army man Murlikant Petkar won the gold and set a world record. He was originally a boxer, but chose swimming after he sustained bullet injuries in the 1965 war.
Down the line, of the 162 countries, India this time finished 24th in the medal tally, thanks to the exemplary show of grit and will power by the para-athletes. Given the fact that Paralympics has become symbolic of triumph against all odds, the performance of the Indian contingent is mind boggling.
The Gold medallists are: Avani Lekhara in Women's 10-m Air Rifle Standing SH1, Pramod Bhagat in Men's singles SL3 badminton, Krishna Nagar in Men's singles SH6 badminton, Sumit Antil in Men's Javelin Throw F64, and Manish Narwal in Mixed 50-m Pistol SH1.
Silver medallists are: Bhavinaben Patel in Women's Singles Class 4 Table Tennis, Singhraj Adhana in Mixed 50m Pistol SH1, Yogesh Kathuniya in Men's Discus F56, Nishad Kumar in Men's High Jump T47, Mariyappan Thangavelu in Men's High Jump T63, Praveen Kumar in Men's High Jump T64, Devendra Jhajharia in Men's Javelin F46, and, Suhas Yathiraj in Men's Singles Badminton SL4.
Bronze medallists are: Avani Lekhara in Women's 50-m Rifle 3 Positions SH1, Harvinder Singh in Men's Individual Recurve Archery, Sharad Kumar in Men's High Jump T63, Sundar Singh Gurjar in Men's Javelin Throw F46, Manoj Sarkar in Men's Singles Badminton SL3, and Singhraj Adhana in Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1.
A few other Indian para-athletes missed out on medals by a whisker. Swaroop Unhalkar (Para Shooting, Sandeep Chaudhary, Soman Rana, Navdeep (Para-Athletics) and Tarun Dhillon (Para Badminton) finished fourth in their events, while Sakina Khatun (Para Powerlifting), Ram Pal, Amit Saroha (ParaAthletics) and Rahul Jakhar (Para Shooting) finished fifth. Throughout the fortnight, it has been a super outing by the Indian contingent who kept the Indian flag flying high. The Indian Para-athletes who put their heart and soul, striving for honour had been a great source of inspiration to the youngsters.
These athletes who represented less than three per cent of India's population who are differently-abled, did a commendable performance in the country where sports take a backseat for academic excellence. The athletes should also be commended for the stupendous performance as they showed sheer will power, considering the body’s limitations.
The Sports Ministry, the Paralympic Committee of India, State Governments and Corporates while presenting cash awards to the medal winners could apportion a part for developing the infrastructure for the Paraathletes. The Paralympic Committee of India should set apart more resources to identify talents in rural areas where the Para-athletes could not showcase their prowess and encourage and train them to make greater heights, E Mohan Kumar, a Chennai based sports enthusiast suggested.
The mega event hit an unsavoury note with the pulling out of Afghanistan. Less than a week before the start of the Games, Afghanistan withdrew due to violence and instability in that country following the Taliban's fight for power.
As the Taliban captured Kabul, the country’s team of Zakia Khudadadi (Taekwondo) and Hossain Rasouli (Athletics) could not make it to Tokyo. Afghanistan’s national flag was still paraded during the opening ceremony as a signal of solidarity.
