India’s two-time Paralympic medal winner Mariyappan Thangavelu secured a gold medal at the World Para Atheltic Championships in Japan. The Tamil Nadu High native was participating in the T63 High Jump Category, where he has already achieved a lot of success. However, he was missing a gold medal at the World Championship events and finally achieved that with a 1.88-metre jump, which is a new record for the competition.
He faced a tough challenge from American jumpers Ezra Frech and Sam Grewe, who won silver and bronze medals respectively. Both of them had previous experience winning medals at the World Championships, but Mariyappan Thangavelu was determined to end his gold medal drought on the evening.
He came into the competition after winning a silver medal at the Asian Para Games in 2022. The 28-year-old will be a leading contender for the gold at the 2024 Paralympics, where India will be going with hopes of breaching their previous best mark of 19 medals, which they won at the Tokyo Olympics.
Mariyappan Thangavelu is a legend in Indian Para Sports
Mariyappan Thangavelu first grabbed the headlines when he bagged the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. He recorded a jump of 1.89 metres to help India win its first gold medal at the quadrennial event in Brazil. He added to his tally with a bronze medal at the World Para-Athletic Championships in 2019 and the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Mariyappan’s life was never easy as he suffered an accident at the tender age of five. However, he picked himself up and fought every adversity on his way to becoming an icon of Para-Sports in India.
He was honoured with India’s fourth highest civilian honour – the Padma Shri in 2017. The Government of India later also awarded him with the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna in 2020. With just 100 days left for the Paralympic campaign to start, Thangavelu will be gunning to add to his honours with another gold medal in high jump. This will make him only the second Indian Paralympian to have two gold medals, the first to achieve this feat is current Indian Paralympic Committee Chief, Devendra Jhajharia.
