Who is Ram Baboo? Meet the waiter-turned-national record holder and Asian Games bronze medallist

Ram Baboo and Manju Rani gave India a good start on Wednesday, October 4, when they clinched the bronze medal in the 35km race walk mixed team event at the 2023 Asian Games.

Baboo came in fourth and Manju finished sixth to pip Hong Kong to take the final step on the podium with a time of 5:51:14. China (5:16:41) and Japan (5:22:11), took home the gold and silver medals, respectively.

Their bronze medal is another testament to India's improvement in athletics in the tournament. They have 23 medals across disciplines currently - four gold, 10 silver, and nine bronze medals. It was also India’s 70th medal (15 gold, 26 silver, and 29 bronze) in Hangzhou, equaling their best-ever haul from the 2018 edition.

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Who is Ram Baboo?

Ram Baboo hails from the remote village of Bauar in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. He was the son of a laborer and farmer who worked hard to raise a family of six.

Baboo took to sports after being inspired by the performances of Indian athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, where India won two silver and four bronze medals. He made use of a 200m track near his house to begin his journey in athletics, with dreams of becoming a marathon runner.

He switched to race walking later and worked hard to pursue his goals. To help fund his goals, Baboo also worked as a waiter in a hotel in Varanasi and also did courier packaging, where he stitched jute bags.

Help came from unexpected corners for Baboo, with a chance meeting with former Olympian Basant Bahadur Rana in Bhopal leading to him getting support for his kit, diet, and even his travel. Another coach, Kannan Sundarrajan, used a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for him.

With the COVID-19 pandemic throwing a wrench in his plans and with his father suffering financially, Baboo joined him in manual labor under the government’s MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005) scheme, earning daily wages of ₹300.

Despite the hardships, Baboo never gave up his sporting ambitions and rose to fame last year when he broke the national record in the 35km race walk at the National Games. He registered a timing of two hours 36 minutes 34 seconds, besting Juned Khan's record of 2:40.16.

Now, Ram Baboo has etched his name in India's sporting history with the bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Games. The Paris Olympics next year, suddenly, doesn't seem as distant as it once did.