Following a disappointing run at the Rio Olympics, it is time to cheer the contingent representing the country at the Paralympics to be held in Rio between 7 and 18 of this month. The contingent includes some promising names like Devendra Jhajharia and Deepa Malik who have a lot of accolades to their name on a national and international level.
After making their debut in the 1968 Summer Paralympic Games, India took a hiatus from the competition during the time between 1972 and 1984. Since then, India has made an appearance in every edition of the competition.
The first World record performance by an Indian at the Games came in 1972 when Murlikant Petkar swam the 50m Freestyle in 37.331 seconds to win the First Gold medal for the country. The highest medal haul for the country came in the year 1984 when the Games were held in New York.
A lot of inspiring stories come to light on a closer look at the athletes participating in the Paralympics. This year, a total of 19 Indian athletes will be participating in the Rio Games.
Here is a comprehensive list of them.
#1 Archery
One Indian archer has qualified in this discipline. She will be representing the country in the Women's Individual Recurve Event.
Pooja
Pooja managed to secure a berth in the Games by finishing fifth in the World Quota Recurve Women Open held in the Czech Republic earlier this year. The archer has completed her education from a government school in Rohtak and completed her Masters in Library Sciences from Baba Mastnath University in Rohtak.
The archer will be without her coach Sanjay Suhag as the Indian Paralympic Council has not allowed the coach to be on the flight to Rio. Pooja had recently won a gold medal in the Senior Para National Archery Championships.
#2 Athletics
The largest portion of the contingent is made of people competing in various categories in the Athletics discipline. It comprises of 78.96% of the contingent with 15 members out of the total squad of 19.
Men
Mariyappan Thangavelu (high jump)
Mariyappan hails from a poor family of the Salem district in Tamil Nadu where he decided to try high jump as a sport. This led him to clinch a gold medal at the IWAS World Junior Games 2015 in the Netherlands. The jumper carried on making progress in the sport and went on to compete at the senior level.
The 20-year old had cleared a distance of 1.78m in the men's high jump T42 event at the IPC Grand Prix in Tunisia, thereby comfortably achieving the A-Qualification Standard of 1.60 for the Rio Paralympics.
The qualification has given him the belief that he has a real shot at a medal in Rio. Mariyappan had lost his leg when he was five in an accident in his village of Periavadagampatti when a bus swerved dangerously off the road and ran over his right leg, crushing it below the knee.
He will be competing in the F42 category.
Varun Singh Bhati (high jump)
Varun Singh Bhati is one of India’s best high jumpers who suffers from a deformity in one leg called Poliomyelitis. The athlete trains at the Sports Authority of India complex in Bangalore and is supported by the GoSports Foundation. Varun started with the sport at his school in Noida and went on to compete internationally.
Varun registered with the `A` qualification mark for the 2012 Paralympics in London with a performance of 1.60m but failed to make the cut to London 2012. He stood 5th at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, (Korea) and won a gold medal at the 2014 China Open Athletics Championship in the same year.
Varun became India’s leading jumper as he recorded a jump of 1.82m at the 2016 IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championship where he won gold as well as set a new Asian Record.
He will be competing in the F42 category.
Sharad Kumar (high jump)
The 24-year-old high jumper from India was diagnosed with polio Mellitus which caused the paralysis of his left leg at the age of just two. However, he took up the high jump at St. Paul's School in Darjeeling, India and went on to compete internationally. Kumar made his debut in 2010 at the Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China.
The high-jumper won a gold medal in the F42 high jump at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, Korea and has since been aiming to win the gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The athlete has been receiving support from the Indian Sports Ministry through the Target Olympic Podium Scheme [TOPS]. The project provides funding for athletes who are preparing to compete at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
He will be competing in the F42 category.
Rampal Chahar (high jump)
Rampal Chahar is one of the four Indians who will be participating in the high jump at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. The high-jumper hails from the city of Sonepat in Haryana. The 26-year-old has a single below elbow amputation but that does not stop him from competing at the highest level. Chahar is currently ranked at number eight in the world in the sport.
The Indian will be looking to create a huge impact at the Rio Paralympics in Brazil. He has been training at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training camp in Kolkata. The athlete had started competing internationally earlier this year when he won the gold medal at the IPC Grand Prix in Tunisia with a jump of 1.85m, a mark which helped him qualify for the Games comfortably.
He will be competing in the F47 category.
Sundar Singh Gurjar (Javelin throw)
Sundar Singh Gurjar is one of India’s five participants at the javelin throw competition in Rio. The Indian has been competing in domestic and international competitions for a couple of years now. The athlete is only 20 years old and is considered as one of India’s best bet at a medal in Rio.
Gurjar has the accomplishment of being named as the best sportsperson in the 16th Para-athletics National Championship in March this year as he was exceptional in the javelin throw competition. But it will be a tough job for the Indian at Rio 2016 to defeat the best from around the world.
He will be competing in the F46 category.
Devendra Jhajaria (Javelin throw)
Devendra Jhajaria is the first ever Paralympian to receive the Padma Shri award in India. The javelin thrower had accidentally come in contact with an electric cable of 11,000 volts when he was just 8 years old. Most of his body was burnt during the incident and Jhajaria would never have imagined he would represent India at the Games.
Apart from winning the silver medal in club throw at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, the athlete had won a gold medal at the Athens Games in 2004 where he also created a world record. The 34-year old also has the distinction of having won the Arjuna Award.
He will be competing in the F46 category.
Rinku (Javelin throw)
Rinku is the youngest Indian athlete to be featuring for the nation at the Rio Paralympics in Brazil. The 17-year-old athlete participates in the javelin throw competition. He had qualified for Rio in the F46 category.
Narender Ranbir (Javelin throw)
Narender Ranbir will be representing the nation at the Rio Paralympics in the javelin throw competition. The Indian had also qualified for India for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom.
He will be participating in the event under F44 classification in the javelin throw. At Rio, the athlete will be looking to improve on his disappointing performance of four years ago.
Sandeep (Javelin Throw)
The 22-year-old para-athlete is from Haryana. Based in New Delhi, Sandeep is ranked second in the world in his category. He secured a Gold medal in the Olympic qualifiers that were held in Dubai earlier in 2015.
He followed that up with another brilliant performance at the German Paralympic Meet organised earlier this year. This is Sandeep’s first Paralympic experience.
Having gone through the pain of a broken hip from a near fatal car accident, Sandeep qualifies for the F44 category for the javelin event. He will be hoping to carry on his medal winning momentum at the Games and make the country proud,
Amit Kumar Saroha (Club throw)
Amit Kumar Saroha is a Paralympian, Arjuna Awardee, and an Asian Para Games medallist who will be featuring for the nation at the Rio Paralympics. Saroha competes in the F51 category in the Discus throw and Club throw category but will be participating in the club throw event.
Amit is one of India's supreme Para-athletes and the first quadriplegic to represent India at a Paralympic Games which was held in London, 2012. The athlete trains at the GoSports Foundation in Bangalore and will be looking to win a medal in Brazil.
The 31-year-old has clinched a gold medal in the men’s club throw F-51 event at the 2016 French Open Athletics Championship recently held in Paris by virtue of a record-breaking throw of 26.58m.,
Dharambir (Club throw)
Dharambir will be representing India at the Rio Paralympics in the club throw competition. The Indian hails from the village of Bhadana in Haryana. Dharambir qualified for the Rio Games by winning a silver medal in the club throw. His discus throw for a range of 21.07 metres was enough to see the athlete qualify for the grand event in Rio.
He will be competing in the F51 category.
Ankur Dhama (1500 metres)
Ankur Dhama will be competing in the athletics for India at the Games and is one of the front-runners to win a medal among the 13 member athletics squad. The runner is an Asia –Para Games silver medallist (800m), as he had won in 2014.
The 28-year old hails from Uttar Pradesh and has been suffering from complete blindness since the age of 5. Ankur is the first ever completely blind athlete across any sport to represent India at the Paralympics. The athlete had been in the news as he said he was asked to pay 5 lakh rupees to get a nomination for an Arjuna award this year. Ankur is also India’s national record holder in the 800m, 1500m, and 5000m category.
He competes in the T11 category for the completely visually impaired.
Virender Dhankar (Shotput)
Virender Dhankar is ranked 5th in the official IPC Rankings for Shotput in his category. He competes in the F57 division of the sport. Despite his high ranking, Virender was initially not given a place in the Indian contingent due to a below-par performance at the national selection trials for which he took to social media to appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports minister Vijay Goel. Following the disqualification of Russia, Virender Dhankar was one of the athletes to secure a berth within the contingent.
Dhankar is a part of the Indian Army.
Women
Deepa Malik (Shot put)
Deepa Malik is a paraplegic Indian athlete who will be taking part in the shot put competition at the Rio Paralympic Games. The 45-year old athlete has participated in various sports during her career. She is an Arjuna Awardee & President's National Role Model Awardee who has also competed in sports like swimming, Javelin throw, shotput, discus throw and motorsport.
The Indian is married to a veteran cavalier Colonel Bikram Singh and is the daughter of a veteran Infantry Colonel BK Nagpal. The athlete has 51 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals at the national and state levels whereas she also has 17 international medals.
Malik competes in the F53 category, which means she has no sensation & body control below chest level. She holds the Asian Records for javelin and shotput in the same category as well.
Karamjyoti Dalal
Taking up, Discus throwing only at the age of 20, Karamjyoti Dalal, who is now in her late 20s, shot to fame after she won five medals in less than a year in 2015. In less than one calendar year, she has gone from being unranked to someone who is fighting for the top three positions in her discipline.
Initially a part of the Kabaddi setup of the country, Dalal took up para-sports after she injured herself in a near fatal fall. Prior to this, she was already a victim of epilepsy from a young age which caused her to jerk back and fall from the terrace of her Haryana home. She was diagnosed with Paraplegia and it took her nearly a year to regain motor senses. She first announced herself as a serious para-athlete after the 2014 Asian Games.
She will be part of the Paralympics due to the disqualification of the Russian team.
She competes in the F55 category which caters to athletes with no motion senses below the waist.
#3 Powerlifting
Farman Basha (Powerlifting)
Farman Basha is India’s only participant in the powerlifting competition in Rio 2016. The powerlifter has represented India at the 2012 Paralympic Games as well in London where he could not finish on the podium. The athlete won a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Para Games held in Guangzhou, China.
The Indian hails from Bangalore, Karnataka and holds a diploma in electronics and television engineering. Basha is affected with poliomyelitis, which he contracted when he was only one year old. Due to this permanent physical impairment, he is unable to ambulate and uses callipers and a wheelchair. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2008 for his contribution to the sport.
#4 Shooting
Naresh Kumar Sharma (Shooting 50m free rifle - 3 Positions)
Naresh Kumar Sharma is the only shooter who will be representing India at the Rio Paralympic Games. Sharma had become the first Indian Paralympian athlete to book his place in the Rio 2016 Paralympics event as he finished at the 12th place in men's 50m rifle three position shooting at the IPC Shooting World Cup at Fort Benning.The 42-year old former Arjuna awardee booked his fifth Paralympic quota, having featured in every Paralympics since 1996, missing out only in Athens 2004. The veteran had his best finish in 2008 Beijing Paralympics, where he had finished 5th. Sharma will be looking to end his career with a podium finish in Rio and will expect his experience to work in his favour. He will be competing in the SH11 disability category.
#5 Swimming
Suyash Narayan Jadhav (Swimming)
Suyash Narayan Jadhav is going to be India’s only swimmer at this year’s Paralympics. The swimmer had lost both his hands in the year 2004 to a loose electric wire. The 22-year old had become the first Indian para-swimmer to have achieved the ‘A’ qualifying mark for 2016 Paralympics in Rio.
Suyash hails from the town of Solapur in Maharashtra and will be competing in the men’s 50m butterfly competition in Rio. The swimmer recently won three silver medals at the 2016 German swimming championships and will be looking to make an impact at the Games.
