Paralympic Games: India have sent an 84-strong contingent, the biggest ever

The Olympics might have got over a fortnight ago, but the Games are not over yet. In three days, Paris will again be the centre of attention when the City of Lights hosts the 17 h Paralympic Games.

India have sent 84 para-athletes, who will be aiming for the country’s highest-ever medal haul at the Paralympics. India won a solitary medal in London 2012, a number that went up to 4 in 2016 Rio and 19 in 2021 Tokyo. If the athletes perform to potential, it could cross 25 in Paris. For the record, India’s cumulative medals tally between 1968, when it first participated at the Paralympics, and 2016, was 12.

But then numbers don’t tell half the story. In Rio, for example, India had sent just 19 athletes. In Tokyo, the number swelled to 54. In Paris, India is sending its largest ever Paralympics contingent.


The number of athletes traveling to Paris highlights two major changes. First, India has started to take its Paralympic sports seriously. And second, there is more sensitivity towards para-athletes. In fact, that’s the moot point: para-athletes aren’t just great stories or subjects of sympathy. They may need empathy, but not sympathy. As para-shuttler Manasi Joshi often says, “Pay them their honorarium”.

They are athletes and should be treated and compensated accordingly for their work.

“Since Tokyo, things have undergone a sea change”, said Suhas Yathiraj, IAS officer and a badminton medal contender in Paris. “Now when I travel, people come up to ask for selfies and autographs. They know who I am and what I do. There is a growing consciousness about para sport and that’s heartening to see.”

Sumit Antil, India’s flag bearer, is eyeing yet another world record winning throw in javelin. “If Neeraj is aiming to throw 90 metres, there is no reason why I won’t aim to throw 80 meters. In Paris, I want to touch the 75 meters mark and win gold again,” said Antil, who had broken his own world record three times in Tokyo.

Such an effort will immediately capture the nation’s attention and help mainstream para-sport. Unlike in the past, para-athletes are now looked-after by the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and other corporate sponsors.

Podium Scheme (TOPS) and other corporate sponsors. “With Chandu Champion everyone knows who Murlikant Petkar is,” said one of the members of the Indian contingent in Paris on condition of anonymity. “We should aim to be known by what we do and not because a Bollywood film was made on us. The film cannot be our identity. A gold medal in Paris might help us get there,” he added.

In 2004, when Devendra Jhajharia travelled to his first Paralympic Games, there was only one person who had accompanied him to the airport — his father. “My father said to me that agar tum medal jeetoge, toh badlao aayega. Agar haar jate ho toh kuch nahi badlaega [if you win a medal, there will be change. If you lose, nothing will change].”

Jhajharia went on to win gold in Athens, and the next year, the Government of India accorded recognition to the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). Since then, it has been a long and difficult journey. Due to lack of support and facilities, athletes would run from pillar to post to play sport. Their struggle was much more than able-bodied athletes could even imagine.

That has changed and may get better from here on. From the way para-athletes have been written about so far and the number of sponsors who have come forward, Paralympic sport in India is finally getting its due.

Perhaps the most important change in the last five years has been the growing public and private sector support. Between 2019-2021, the government had invested Rs 8.2 crores in para sports facilities (per statement in the Lok Sabha). While this seems pittance when compared with investment in Olympic sports, it is a huge increase compared to the previous years. There has been a multi-fold increase since 2021.

Individual athletes who have won medals have all benefited from the TOPS. Not only did the government spend Rs 7 lakh on Antil’s prosthetic leg, but he was also given every opportunity to train with able-bodied athletes like Neeraj Chopra and compete in tournaments. Antil trained in Finland and Tunisia for weeks.

Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the PCI had ordered 15 gold bracelets for the medal winners. Eventually, they had to increase the number to 20! For the first time in India’s sporting history, expectations were exceeded at such a major event. Paris could be even better and give the Paralympic movement in the country a major boost.