For people into sports, an injury is nothing less than a nightmare and a physical disability certainly seems like an end of career to normal people like us. As Stephen Hawking said, “Disability need not be an obstacle to success”, so have these para-athletes in our country achieved greatness despite all the odds against them. They, defiling all the odds have proved that ‘Where there is a will, there is a way.’
Here is the list of few such inspiring athletes -
Arunima Sinha –
Arunima Sinha has been the first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest. In 2011, she lost her leg when she was pushed out of a moving train by a gang of robbers. With a firm determination and persistence, two years later she became the first Indian woman amputee to have climbed Mount Everest. She also went climbing Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe.
Major DP Singh –
Mr. Singh is the first Indian to run half a marathon with the blade. The journey to earning the epithet ‘India’s Blade Runner’ was not a bed of roses. During Operation Vijay of the Kargil war in 1998, Major DP Singh was heavily injured and was brought back to life amputating his right leg. In 2009, he ran his first marathon with his prosthetic leg. Today, he has successfully run 12 marathons and even holds the LIMCA record for being the first of his kind.
Girish Sharma -
Having lost his limb at an early age of 2 in a train accident, Sharma is India’s disabled Badminton Champion. It is his sheer dedication that led him to win the Gold Medal in the Paralympic Asia Cup for the disabled. He has represented India and played against Israel, Thailand, etc.
H Boniface Prabhu -
A failed lumbar puncture made H Boniface Prabhu a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Despite his disability, he continued his education, never letting go off his dream of being a tennis player. Today, he is one of the leading quadriplegic wheelchair tennis players in the world with a ranking of 17 in singles and 19 in doubles. He was the highest-ranked player in Asia in 2011 and at present, his ranking is 2. He was awarded Padma Shri in recognition of his efforts.
Sai Prasad Vishwanathan -
In Image: Sai Prasad Vishwanathan
Vishwanathan lost sensation in the lower half of his body as a kid. He became India’s first skydiver and has his name registered in the Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian with a disability to skydive from 14,000 feet.
