India at the Paralympics

India at the Paralympics
IPC code	IND
NPC	Paralympic Committee of India
Website	www.paralympicindia.org.in
Medals Ranked 57th	Gold 9 Silver 12 Bronze 10 Total 31
Summer appearances
1968 1972 1976–1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024

India made its Summer Paralympic debut at the 1968 Games, competed again in 1972, and then was absent until the 1984 Games. The country has participated in every edition of the Summer games since then. It has never participated in the Winter Paralympic Games.^[1]

India's first medal in Paralympics came in 1972 Games, with Murlikant Petkar winning a gold medal in swimming. India's best finish yet has been in the 2020 Games, at 24th place with a medal haul of 19 medals (5 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze).^[2]

History

India's first medal, and also the first individual gold medal, was won in 1972 Games, when Murlikant Petkar swam the 50 meters freestyle in a world record time of 37.331 seconds.^[3] India finished at 25th rank in those games. In 1984, Joginder Singh Bedi won silver at the Men's Shot Put and followed it up with a pair of bronze winning performances in the Discus and Javelin throws. Thus, Joginder became the first multi-medallist Paralympian from India. Bhimrao Kesarkar also won a silver medal in Javelin in 1984 Games. India finished 43rd out of the 54 participating nations.^[4]

India continued to participate in each Paralympic Games thereafter, but failed to make an impact until the 2004 Games when Devendra Jhajharia won gold in javelin throw and Rajinder Singh Rahelu won bronze for powerlifting in the 56-kg category.

In 2016 Games, Deepa Malik won a silver medal in Shot Put to become the first Indian woman to win a Parlaympics medal.^[5]

The 2020 Games saw India's best-ever medal haul with a total of 19 medals (5 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 Bronze). This result was better than the medal haul of 12 medals of all previous Paralympics appearances combined. The games also had India's best ever participation yet with 54 athletes (40 men, 14 women) across nine sports. It was India's best performance by an overall ranking of 24 (among 162 nations; including Refugee Paralympic Team and Russian Paralympic Committee).^[6]

Shooter Avani Lekhara won two medals - gold in 10m Air Rifle SH1 and bronze in 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1. Thus, she became the first Indian woman to win an individual gold medal and first woman multi-medalist.^[7] Shooter Singhraj Adhana also won two medals - silver in 50m Pistol SH1 and bronze in 10m Air Pistol SH1 categories. Para-badminton player Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj became the first civil servant to win a Paralympic medal, a silver in SL4 category.^[8]

In 2020 Games, Vinod Kumar initially clinched a bronze medal in the men's discus throw F52 category event. However, other competitors raised questions about his disability and was subsequently designated as "Classification not Completed". His performance was disqualified, resulting in the loss of his medal.^[9]

Medals

Medals by Summer Games

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1960 Rome	Did not participate
1964 Tokyo
1968 Tel Aviv	10	0	0	0	0	-
1972 Heidelberg	10	1	0	0	1	25
1976 Toronto	Did not participate
1980 Arnhem
/ 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York	5	0	2	2	4	37
1988 Seoul	2	0	0	0	0	-
1992 Barcelona	9	0	0	0	0	-
1996 Atlanta	9	0	0	0	0	-
2000 Sydney	4	0	0	0	0	-
2004 Athens	12	1	0	1	2	53
2008 Beijing	5	0	0	0	0	-
2012 London	10	0	1	0	1	67
2016 Rio de Janeiro	19	2	1	1	4	43
2020 Tokyo	54	5	8	6	19	24
2024 Paris	Future event
2028 Los Angeles
2032 Brisbane
Total		9	12	10	31	57

Medals by Summer Sport

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Athletics	4	9	5	18
Shooting	2	1	2	5
Badminton	2	1	1	4
Swimming	1	0	0	1
Table tennis	0	1	0	1
Archery	0	0	1	1
Powerlifting	0	0	1	1
Total	9	12	10	31

Medalists

Medal	Name/Team	Games	Sport	Event
Gold	Murlikant Petkar	1972 Heidelberg	Swimming	Men's 50m Freestyle 3
Silver	Bhimrao Kesarkar	/ 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York	Athletics	Men's Javelin L6
Silver	Joginder Singh Bedi		Athletics	Men's Shot Put L6
Bronze	Joginder Singh Bedi		Athletics	Men's Javelin L6
Bronze	Joginder Singh Bedi		Athletics	Men's Discus Throw L6
Gold	Devendra Jhajharia	2004 Athens	Athletics	Men's Javelin F44/46
Bronze	Rajinder Singh Rahelu		Powerlifting	Men's 56 kg
Silver	Girisha Nagarajegowda	2012 London	Athletics	Men's High Jump F42
Gold	Mariyappan Thangavelu	2016 Rio de Janeiro	Athletics	Men's High Jump F42
Gold	Devendra Jhajharia		Athletics	Men's Javelin Throw F46
Silver	Deepa Malik		Athletics	Women's Shot Put F53
Bronze	Varun Singh Bhati		Athletics	Men's High Jump F42
Gold	Avani Lekhara	2020 Tokyo	Shooting	Women's 10m Air Rifle SH1
Gold	Sumit Antil		Athletics	Men's Javelin Throw F64
Gold	Manish Narwal		Shooting	Mixed 50m Pistol SH1
Gold	Pramod Bhagat		Badminton	Men's Singles SL3
Gold	Krishna Nagar		Badminton	Men's Singles SH6
Silver	Bhavina Patel		Table Tennis	Women's Singles C4
Silver	Nishad Kumar		Athletics	Men's High Jump T47
Silver	Yogesh Kathuniya		Athletics	Men's Discus Throw F56
Silver	Devendra Jhajharia		Athletics	Men's Javelin Throw F46
Silver	Mariyappan Thangavelu		Athletics	Men's High Jump T63
Silver	Praveen Kumar		Athletics	Men's High Jump T64
Silver	Singhraj Adhana		Shooting	Men's 50m Pistol SH1
Silver	Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj		Badminton	Men's Singles SL4
Bronze	Sundar Singh Gurjar		Athletics	Men's Javelin Throw F46
Bronze	Singhraj Adhana		Shooting	Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1
Bronze	Sharad Kumar		Athletics	Men's High Jump T63
Bronze	Avani Lekhara		Shooting	Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1
Bronze	Harvinder Singh		Archery	Men's Individual Recurve Open
Bronze	Manoj Sarkar		Badminton	Men's Singles SL3

Multiple Medalists

Athlete	Games	Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Devendra Jhajharia	2004 Athens 2016 Rio de Janeiro 2020 Tokyo	Athletics	2	1	0	3
Mariyappan Thangavelu	2016 Rio de Janeiro 2020 Tokyo	Athletics	1	1	0	2
Avani Lekhara	2020 Tokyo	Shooting	1	0	1	2
Joginder Singh Bedi	/ 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York	Athletics	0	1	2	3
Singhraj Adhana	2020 Tokyo	Shooting	0	1	1	2

2012 Games Village Controversy

During the 2012 Summer Paralympics it was reported that coaches and escorts of the Indian Team were denied accommodation in the Games Village because their permits were being used by officials of the Paralympic Committee of India.^[10] The Team's 10 athletes were to be assisted by six coaches and five escorts, but only two escorts were given passes; Paralympic Committee General Secretary Ratan Singh confirmed that he had brought his son, that the Committee president had brought his wife, and the treasurer had brought his wife and daughter.^[11]

See also

• India at the Olympics
• India at the World Games
• India at the Asian Games
• India at the Commonwealth Games
• India at the Lusofonia Games
• India at the South Asian Games

References