Meet Devendra Jhajharia. At the age of 8, he lost his left hand after touching a live wire. But that did not deter his will to make it big. In 1997, Devendra was scouted by Dronacharya Awardee coach R.D. Singh for his performance during his school’s sports day and then there was no stopping him.
Virender Sehwag’s parody account summed it up…
Won 2 #Gold With Only 1 Hand. Now Whenever I Need Inspiration, I’ll Look At #DevendraJhajharia 🇮🇳
We Are Proud Of U. pic.twitter.com/QV8j9VJgPE— Virender Sehwag (@VirenderrSehwag) September 14, 2016
The real Viru’s tweet wasn’t any less inspiring either…
#Paralympics is pyaara-lympics. Bow down to #DevendraJhajharia fr d Gold&new World Record.He won Gold in2004as well pic.twitter.com/s4DzALa5hG
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) September 14, 2016
Tweets from all around the country poured it. The likes of Narendra Modi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the BCCI… everyone joined in to congratulate this man.
In 2004, he qualified for javelin throw at the Athens Paralympics. And he created history. In his 1st Paralympics, he broke the world record of 59.77m with his throw of 62.15m.
With that, he became only the second Indian to win a Paralympic gold in history.
More than a decade later, he qualified for the ongoing Paralympics is Rio. His objective was always very clear:
“I will repeat my Athens performance in Rio,” he said.
He didn’t just do that, he bettered it. In fact, he shattered it. He threw a whooping 63.97m, a new world record! And with that, he has become the only Indian to win 2 Paralympic gold medals.
