Better than the best: India’s para-athletes soar high in best ever Paralympics

India’s paralympians managed to be all these and much more in an epoch-making campaign at the Tokyo Games where an unparalleled 19 medals, including five gold, helped them sign off 24th in the overall tally — the highest ever.

The tally also included eight silver and six bronze medals but most importantly, it was a performance during which history was scripted almost everyday with the contingent living up to the ‘Spirit in Motion’ motto of the Games.

Even on the last day of competitions, the medal rush did not stop and Krishna Nagar won a gold after Noida’s District Magistrate Suhas Yathiraj signed off his brilliant run with a silver to complete a remarkable badminton show.

The duo’s performance was like icing on the cake for the contingent which found new heroes, celebrated some established ones and brought para-sports firmly into spotlight in India.

In all, 54 came to Tokyo and 17 of them left with medals around their necks.

It was an improved performance no doubt but calling it just improvement would be an understatement given that India’s overall Games haul was a mere 12 before this edition.

To put things in perspective, at the 2016 Rio Games, India had 19 athletes across five disciplines with four returning with medals in the end.

“Phenomenal Rise of Indian Paralympians! A New Era has Begun,” said sports minister Anurag Thakur.

There were several firsts to celebrate and the euphoria lasted the entire duration of the Games.

Two athletes, shooters Avani Lekhara and Singhraj Adana, finished on podium twice, creating their own legacies in their debut Paralympics.

The 19-year-old Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win a Games gold (10m air rifle) and later added a bronze in 50m rifle 3 positions to ensure that her name would now be part of every India-centric Paralympic quiz.

It was an inspiring show by the teenager who was paralysed waist down after being injured in a car accident in 2012.

And to think of it, all her father had hoped to achieve by taking her to the shooting range was for Lekhara to get over the anger she had internalized after the accident which left her wheelchair-bound.

She was fittingly India’s flag-bearer at the closing ceremony, an honour that she had earned with a stupendous performance.

The 39-year-old Adana, on the other hand, was a late bloomer after taking a liking to the pistol while dropping his nephew to the range.

His right hand impaired, Adana knocked off a 10m air pistol bronze and 50m pistol silver to ensure that India had more than one double-medallist in the same Games for the first time ever.

There was the first medal in archery through Harvinder Singh (bronze), impaired after wrong medication for dengue, the first medal in table tennis by waist-down paralyzed Bhavinben Patel (silver) and also a remarkable two gold medals in badminton through short of stature Nagar and a polio-stricken Pramod Bhagat.

Another shooting star rose on the horizon with Manish Narwal, all of 19, already a world champion and now a Paralympic champion as well.

Narwal’s right hand is impaired and he originally wanted to be a footballer but fate had other plans for the Lionel Messi fan.

Not to mention the legends — Devendra Jhajharia (javelin throw) and Mariyappan Thangavelu (high jump).

The two long-time flag-bearers of Indian para-sports, who won gold medals in 2016 Rio, and finished on podium again, this time with silver medals, cementing their place among all-time greats of Indian sports.