With a total of 19 medals, India went past its previous best tally of four medals at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro. In fact, India had a total medal count of 12 before the Tokyo Paralympics, but the tally now stands at 31. Also, this time around India had gone into the Games with an unprecedented contingent of 54 athletes.
Even on the last day of competitions, the medal rush on Sunday did not stop and Krishna Nagar won a gold medal after Noida’s (Gautam Buddha Nagar) District Magistrate Suhas Yathiraj IAS, signed off his brilliant run with a silver medal to complete a remarkable badminton show. The duo’s performance was like icing on the cake for the contingent which found new heroes, celebrated some established ones and brought para-sports firmly into the spotlight in India.
Noida DM and shuttler Suhas L Yathiraj on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first IAS officer to win a medal at the Paralympics. The 2007-batch IAS officer with a leg impairment, won the silver medal after losing the final match against France’s Lucas Mazur in the badminton men’s singles SL4 event.
It is a motivating achievement by our sportspersons with special abilities and they have shown to the world that they can deliver when the opportunity comes. Yes, the question arises on the opportunity being provided to these para-athletes. With 54 persons representing India, it was the best ever contingent which shows that the interest in sport is growing and people even with special abilities are taking it seriously to compete at international events.
In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the constant support provided by coaches, support staff and families of athletes as he expressed hope the country would build on to the success to ensure greater participation in sports.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that his government will provide a cash reward of Rs 6 crore and another one of Rs 4 crore to India’s Paralympics stars Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adana, respectively. Both the para-athletes clinched historic medals for the country in the men’s P4 mixed 50m pistol SHI on Saturday, with Manish winning the gold and Singhraj bagging the silver in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games.
According to media reports, the Haryana administration also announced that both these sportsmen would be provided government jobs in the State. Earlier, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also announced that his administration will provide prize money of Rs 2.5 crore to para-athlete Harvinder Singh, who won the first bronze and the only medal in archery at the Paralympics Games in Tokyo on Friday. After his loss in the semifinals, Singh had managed to clinch the bronze in the men individual recurve open at the multi-sports event for para-athletes.
Also, to celebrate India’s remarkable performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Paralympics, Mahindra and Mahindra has announced that they will gift a special utility vehicle (SUV) to all gold medalists. The announcement was made on August 30, when Mahindra and Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to applaud Paralympic athlete Sumit Anil’s performance.
Such statements are welcome but at the same time sport ministers from all the States in India should come out openly to support this feat as it a well known fact that the performing span of any sportsperson is short and they require immediate assistance, especially when they are struggling to get infrastructure and financial support and planning to compete at international levels. Yes, more needs to be done than just renaming of stadiums giving them names of sportspersons and talking about it on a National Sport Day. Hopefully, with this result at the Paralympic Games, more provisions would be made by all the State governments in the country for special ability sports enthusiasts.
