DC Edit | India’s Paratroops in Paris

The 29 medals in different colours brought colour and joy to sporting circles as they embraced new heroes from multiple disciplines. The shooters, athletes, archers and everyone else punched above their weight to make a powerful statement in Paris — that they can and are capable.

An impressive tally of 29, with seven gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals, meant India stood at 18th place on the medal table. In terms of medal order, India is at an impressive 15th place.

In contrast, the previous Olympics for able-bodied people did not bring much joy to the Indians. Only one silver medal and five bronze medals pushed us to 71st place, 23 places lower than the 2021 Tokyo Games, where Neeraj Chopra had lifted the nation’s spirits with gold in javelin. However, he failed to defend his brilliance in Paris and dropped to silver, behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who had comparatively less resources to prepare for the global competition.

At the Para Games, javelin throwers Navdeep Singh, Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar ensured that India won the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.

In recent times, the Union government has been spending a lot of money on sportsmen, through a plethora of projects that provide funding for their training, participation in competitions abroad, hiring good coaches and support staff, and purchasing playing and recovery equipment. A medal is important, at whatever level, is the government’s mantra.

The generosity should now be extended widely to Para athletes. Perhaps we should make it a point to promote Para sport at school level. It should work both ways, by training potential champions and giving them the much needed satisfaction of overcoming physical challenges.