“There can’t be a happier moment for an athlete and the country when the national flag goes up and the national anthem is played,” said two-time Paralympics gold medalist and current president of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), Devendra Jhajharia.
India had not won a Paralympic medal after 1984 until the 2004 Athens Paralympics, when Jhajharia ended India’s medal drought with a gold in men’s javelin throw F44/46 event and set a world record in the process.
Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was just a six-year-old kid then.
Since then, Indians have bettered their Paralympics show by leaps and bounds at every edition, With an unprecedented 84-strong athletes’ contingent representing the country at Paris Paralympics, Jhajharia expects the Games, starting on Wednesday, to be a “historic” event for India.
“I would like to say that India will put up an excellent performance in Paris,” Jhajharia said during an exclusive interaction with TOI.
“Eighty-four para-athletes are going to Paris this time and I can say with conviction that last time we won 19 medals, but this time we will win 25 or more. Our target is to finish among the top-20 in the medal tally so that the Paralympians can take India to new heights in sports,” he added.
Apart from the athletes, there will be 77 team officials and 18 members, who are either medical officials or contingent officials, making the Indian contingent 179-member strong. India will be competing in 12 sports in Paris, compared to the nine disciplines the 54-member team competed in Tokyo.
While India won a record 111 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games last year, the para-athletes managed 17 medals at the World Para Athletics Championships in May, including six gold.
The PCI chief banked on athletics to bring joy to the country. “We have athletes with medal-winning capacity in every sport this time. But our athletics contingent is the biggest among them and we are expecting them to win the largest number of medals for India,” he said.
“In my opinion, we should win 10 or more medals in athletics in Paris. Other than that, our shooting, badminton and archery contingents are also excellent. So, we are expecting at least 25 medals this time.”
Jhajharia, who claimed that his experience on the field made him understand the problems of the para-athletes better than a non-sportsman administrator would, spoke of the steps he has taken to ease the pressure of expectation on the Paralympians.
“One thing I am doing differently is, alongside talking to the athletes, I am also speaking to their parents to reduce the pressure on the players. Sometimes it’s the parents and family members who gets stressed which puts unnecessary pressure on the para-athletes,” Jhajharia explained.
“Instead, we are telling the athletes to give their best and not bother with winning medals too much. Our players are physically fit, but we are trying to enhance their mental capacity to handle the stress of big events like the Paralympics.”
With the Paralympics knocking on the door and the opening ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, Jhajharia added that he would be with the athletes in Paris as they look to create history for India.
Now, it’s over to the para-athletes to shine in the French capital.
