Paralympics 2024 kickstarted last week, and with 84 athletes gearing up to represent India in Paris, one could not help but be hopeful for some good results. And our expectations have only been exceeded as by day 4, with 7 medals, India’s position was overall 27th, which is one of the highest ones the country has seen. The biggest name to emerge out of this is the 22-year-old shooter Avani Lekhara, who has not now become the first Indian woman paralympic to win back-to-back gold. This is just one of the records the shooter has set, however. On the 30th of August, with her Paralympics gold medal in the women's 10 m air rifle event, Avani also kickstarted the Indian campaign with a bang.
In Tokyo 2020, Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympics gold medal, and India’s first at the event. Not only this, she set a Paralympic record with 249.6 points in the final event and also tied with the world record. Her achievements were recognised both domestically and internationally with Avani Lekhara being awarded the Khel Ratna Award as well as Best Female Debut - Paralympic Awards in 2021.
What a lot of people don’t know about Avani Lekhara is how quickly she rose in the game. A car accident in 2012, when she was 11, left Avani paraplegic. Her father encouraged her to join sports where she began with archery but eventually found her calling in shooting. She considers Abhinav Bindra as an inspiration and having gotten started with the sport in 2015, Avani Lekhara is now ranked the World No. 1 in Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1 as per World Shooting Para Sports Rankings. A mean feat indeed!
Avani is not the only one making India proud at the Paris Paralympics 2024 however. She was joined by compatriot Mona Agarwal who scored a bronze at the women's 10 m air rifle event. The same day Manish Narwhal also scored a silver medal in the Men's P1 10 m air pistol event, followed by Rubina Francis who brought back home a bronze on September 1st in the Women's P2 10 metre air pistol event.
Apart from the shooters, India also shone bright in athletics with Nishad Kumar winning a silver medal in the men's high jump event, and Preethi Pal scoring a bronze each in Women's 200 m and 100 m.