She is not yet old enough to vote (voting age in India is 18) but Sheetal Devi along with Rakesh Kumar won the Bronze medal in Mixed Team Compound Para Archery competition at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Sheetal is 17 and this was her debut in the Paralympics.
Sheetal’s remarkable performance drew worldwide acclaim. You don’t need any superpowers to predict that lots of gold medals are in store in this young lady’s future. Sheetal made a great team with Rakesh Kumar who is ranked India’s No. 1. Such was their performance that the commentators were brethless (“Indian team is on fire!”)
In the Men’s Individual Para Archery Harwinder Singh won the Gold against Lukasz Ciszek of Poland. Most outstanding feature of this match was Harwinder’s temperament. Four times he scored a 10, in the last set his score was 10, 10, 9 and yet he was so focused that he showed no emotion – no fist bump, no self-talk. Even the commentators noticed. He was like Arjun, the great archer from the Mahabharata, who would only see the target and nothing else. तुसी छा गये, हरविंदर पाजी! 1
Harwinder is also persuing Ph. D. in economics from Punjab University. Talk about setting high goals!
BREAKING NEWS : Scientists discover new gene that helps Indian women to win Olympic medals in shooting!!
Okay, that’s not a real news but it may well be. Not only do Indian women love shooting, they are so good at it that they are winning medals left and right. In Women’s 10m Air Rifle Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal were competing against each other in the final round. Defending champion Avani retained her gold while Mona took the Bronze. If this trend continues, India may win all three colors in the next event. In Women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1, Rubina Francis won the Bronze while in Men’s 10m Air Pistol, Manish Narwal won the silver beating World Record holder Yang Chao of China.
When Nitish Kumar played gold medal match against Daniel Bethell of Great Britain in Para Badminton SL3, no one gave him a chance. Daniel was the favourite. SL3 Badminton uses only half the court and the startegy is quite different from normal badminton. Here, it’s a qame of long rallies and patience. Nitish held his nerve and gave a superb performance, clinching the gold.
In Para Badminton SL4, world no 1 Suhas Yathiraj won the silver. In the Para Badminton SU5 class, Thulasimathi Murugesan created history as the first Indian woman shuttler to win a Paralympic silver medal. What an accomplishment!
Preethi Pal was running like the wind, winning two bronze medals in Women’s 100m T35 and Women’s 200m T35. In Women’s 200m T12 event, Simran with Abhay Singh won the bronze medal. Her compatriot Deepthi Jeevanji was not to be outdone. In 400m T20 race, Deepthi won the bronze.
If Indian women dominated shooting and archery, men excelled in athletic events.
Hokato Hotozhe Sema is inspiration personified. The 40-year old para-athlete started training at 32 and this was his first Paralymics. He won the bronze in the Men’s Shot Put F57 event.
In Men’s High Jump T64, Praveen Kumar secured gold, improving on his silver medal performance at the Tokyo Paralympics. His high jump of 2.08m was a new Asian record. Sachin Khilari won the silver in Men’s Short Put F46 while Sundar Singh Gujar won bronze in the Men’s Javelin F46 event. In the same event, Ajeet Singh Yadav won the silver, once again underlining India’s dominance.
In Men’s Club Throw F51 event, Dharambir Nain created history when he set a new Asian record with his throw of 34.92 m winning the gold. His compatriot Pranav Soorma fell just short with a throw of 34.59 m and bagged the silver. In the Men’s High Jump T47 category, Nishad Kumar retained his silver, Yogesh Kathunia won a silver as well, in Men’s Discus Throw F56 event.
In Men’s Javelin Throw F64, Sumit Antil is the undisputed champion. He won the gold both at Tokyo and Paris, and set new Paralympic records both times with his throws of 68.55 m and 70.59 m respectively. He is a six time world record holder!!
Navdeep Singh won the gold in T41 Javelin. He was 4th at the Tokyo games, what a remarkable progress! In Men’s High Jump T63, former World No. 1 Sharad Kumar won the silver while his compatriot Mariyappan Thngavelu won the bronze.
Kapil Parmar won the Bronze in 60 kg J1 Judo event defeating Elielton de Oliviera on Brazil. This is the first time India has won a medal in Paralympics Judo event.
Scientists are always interested in systems that show a sudden change because this means that there is something interesting going on behind the scenes to cause that change. In 2012, India’s tally at the London Paralympic games was 1. In 2024, it is 29. India has done better than Switzerland, Belgium, Turkiye, South Korea, and Argentina. What caused this change?
In 2014, under the visionary leadership of PM Modi Ji, Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) was formed. TOPS provided financial assistance to talented players. They also received training by expert coaches using the latest equipment. Khelo India was another such initiative to firmly establish the sports culture in the country at the grassroots level through talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development.
Excelling in any sport is extremely challenging. Paralympians have to overcome many daunting challenges. Today, Sheetal Devi is as famous in India as any other star athelete. It is heartening to see the talent and hard work of these remarkable young men and women being recognized and appreciated.
- A loose translation would be something like, “You killed it, Brother!” ‘Paji’ is a Punjabi term denoting honorific for brothers. Similarly, ‘Ji’ is an honorific used in North and Western India. Different Indian cultures have different honorifics but the way they are used is quite organic; often there are no set rules.
A great example is the way the players in the Indian cricket team use various honorific terms. Indian captain Rohit Sharma once referred to Yuvraj Singh as ‘Yuvi Pa’ (short for Paji). Mahendra Singh Dhoni is ‘Mahi Bhai’ (‘Bhai’ literally means brother) while Sachin Tendulkar is ‘Sachin Paji.’ ‘Da’ is an honorific for Bengalis but ask the billion Indian cricket fans and they will tell you in one voice that there is only one ‘Dada’ in cricket, Saurav Ganguly. ↩︎
