There’s nothing better than being inspired by someone close to your heart. For India’s eminent paralympic athlete Devendra Jhajharia, it was his six-year-old daughter.
Young Jiya has been an integral part of the javelin thrower’s preparations and had even accompanied him to numerous training sessions before he embarked for the Rio Paralympics. The father and daughter had made promises to each other that the 35-year-old would have to bring home a gold medal if Jiya topped her lower kindergarten exam. Both kept their promises.
Devendra Jhajharia produced a dazzling performance in men’s F46 javelin throw in Rio to, not only win the gold, but to even smash his own world record with a distance of 63.97 metres. It eclipsed the 62.15m that he previously set at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games en route to his first gold.
The Rajasthan athlete is now the only Indian to have won gold medals in the individual category in either Olympics or Paralympics.
Behind this success is an event that had scarred him for life many years ago. At the age of eight, he lost his left hand after accidentally touching a live electric wire while climbing a tree. The amputation had major repercussions as he had to face social ostracism.
But this only made him more determined to do well in sports. At the age of 21, he established himself by grabbing a first international gold medal at the 2002 Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled in Korea.
After clinching gold at Athens 2004, Jhajharia had to wait 12 years for another chance to perform at the Summer Games. That is because the F46 category was discontinued in the next two Games before being implemented again at Rio.
In between, the dedicated athlete kept up his intense training regime and proved himself in a host of other major events. He collected gold at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, the silver at the 2014 Asian Para Games and silver at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships.
Quite deservingly, he has already been bestowed with the Arjuna award as well as the Padma Shri, the latter being the fourth-highest civilian honour in India.
