HTLS 2021 Inside the mind of India’s champs: Grit, guts, glory

Call it the afterglow of success, or firm belief in self, or a bit of both, but four months after India registered its best haul at the Olympics and Paralympics, the country’s medallists already have Paris 2024 in their sights.

Bajrang Punia, Avani Lekhara, and Sumit Antil took the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on a journey that was full of revelations, while being both refreshing and reassuring. They were unanimous in their assertion that the Tokyo success was a pit stop, and not the final destination, of their careers.

“I am definitely not satisfied with my bronze. As an athlete, I can never let my guard down. I am targeting a gold in Paris, and if you ask any sportsperson irrespective of whether they won a medal in Tokyo or not, they’ll tell you they want to win a gold at the 2024 Games. This is a major shift in attitude,” said Punia, who beat Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov to win a bronze in his maiden Games.

Punia’s medal was the fourth consecutive Olympics when wrestling fetched a medal for the country, and the 27-year-old credited the consistency to Sushil Kumar, who ended India’s then 56-year wait for a wrestling medal when he claimed bronze at the Beijing Games in 2008.

“The credit (for wrestling’s success) certainly goes to Sushil, because he broke the glass ceiling for a lot of us. He gave us the belief that we can emulate him. Now, we hope to do the same for the next generations,” the Sonepat-based wrestler said in a conversation with CNN-News18’s Shivani Gupta.

While Punia had a role model in Sushil and a functional system that groomed him into one of the world’s best, the challenges for Lekhara and Antill were manifold and seemingly insurmountable.

Lekhara, now 19, was paralysed form the waist down after a road accident in 2012. Bedridden for months, she was home schooled for two years, and it was on the insistence of her father that she tried her hand at shooting and archery.

She made her international shooting debut in 2017. Her gold in the 10-metre air rifle standing SH1 event in Tokyo was the first instance of Lekhara topping the podium at an international event. She marked the occasion by equalling the world record (249.6) in the final.

What made the success sweeter was that Lekhara had recovered from a bad start in the qualifications, and was seventh among the eight contenders when the final began. What’s more, she was not happy even after shooting gold, thanks to a 9.9 that she hit in her last competition shot.

“I was not satisfied because my last shot wasn’t good, but when I saw the faces of my team members and family, it made me happy. This is my last junior year, and I wanted to end it with a Paralympic gold, a Paralympic record, a junior world record, and a world record. Luckily, I achieved all my goals!” Lekhara added.

Four days later, she added another first to her kitty, when, by virtue of shooting a bronze in the 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 event, she became the only Indian woman to win multiple medals at the Paralympics.

“I compete in four events, out of which 10m and 50m 3P are my favourites. I really wanted to win a medal in both. I knew I couldn’t have sat back after just one gold. And in some ways my bronze was even more satisfying than the gold,” she said.

Unlike Lekhara, javelin thrower Antil had tasted international success before his Tokyo campaign. A reigning world record holder and a silver medallist at World Para Athletics Championships in 2019, he broke his own world record three times in a space of six attempts in the F64 category.

The gold arrived with a monster throw of 68.55 metres, just hours after Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympics gold.

The 23-year-old was training to become a wrestler before a road accident turned his life around. Back in 2015, on his way back from his tuition classes, Antil’s motorbike was hit by a tractor from behind. The tractor crushed his left leg, and close to two months after the accident, he got a prosthetic leg.

Life on prosthetics was not easy, but Antil, having bumped into Oscar ‘Blade Runner’ Pistorius’ videos, was determined to make a career in sports. The next challenge was to get used to the prosthetics.

“As a para athlete, you can’t do certain basic exercises. I can’t do full squats on my artificial leg, so I had to look for alternate exercises to work out those muscles. Even today, I wake up in pain. Till the time the muscles don’t wake up, the amputated leg hurts; it is inevitable. People say, ‘Look, he has won a medal in just four years,’ but they don’t know what goes behind each success.I have been using my current prosthetic leg since March, and am still getting used to it.”

Hurling a javelin on a prosthetic leg brought its own challenges. Antil could not use any power from the ground, meaning all his throws needed to be propelled by his sheer upper body strength.

“Even in wrestling, our coaches trained us to use ground to our advantage. We learn to draw power from the ground, but I had completely lost that advantage.”

However, the upper body strength accrued through rigourous grappling sessions meant he developed into a more-than-competent javelin thrower. He had the world record on his radar since the day he picked up a javelin.

“The day I started out in javelin, I asked my coach what the current world record was. People were sceptical initially about my dream to break the then world record, which was around 59 metres, but I was always confident. Now, I have stretched the record by roughly 10 metres.

“My goal is to shorten the gap between the able-bodied throwers and para throwers, although there is a world of difference between the two because throwers with leg amputations cannot draw any power from the ground. I’d still like to get close to 80 metres and will do my best to win another gold in Paris 2024,” Antil said.

With a 19-medal haul at Para Games, Antil reckons that country’s budding para athletes may not be short of role models anymore.

“I am happy that I am part of a change. Our success will hopefully inspire people who unfortunately meet with accidents and had to undergo amputations. Now, such people and young para athletes have heroes right in front of them, and I am happy to have played a part in this change,” he said.