Injured While Fighting For The Country In 1965 War, Murlikant Petkar Won India's First Paralympic Gold
The Paralympic Association of India scratch their heads when they hear of Murlikant Petkar. It is sad that they do so because he was India's first-ever gold medallist at the Paralympic Games, much before any Indian individual lay hands on an Olympic medal. With the Rio 2016 Paralympics starting in days, here's why it is important to look back at his iconic achievement.
BBC
Petkar, a jawan of the craftsman rank in the Indian army, is a living hero of the 1965 war against Pakistan. Wounded in the war due to bullet shots, Petkar suffered irreversible injuries that forced him to end his career as a soldier. But that didn't deter him from continuing to serve his country.
Petkar, who was an avid sportsperson during his time in the defence forces, took to sports as a specially-abled athlete and excelled at it.
BBC
Originally a boxer at the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers in Secunderabad, Petkar changed disciplines to swimming after his injuries. Apart from swimming, he also played table tennis and made a mark in athletics, javelin throw, precision javelin throw and slalom. He represented India at the 1968 Paralympics in the table tennis category and made the second round. The next Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany was the year he made history as an individual Indian in the Olympic Games.
He clocked a world-record capturing 37.331 seconds to win gold medal in the 50m freestyle swimming event in 1972, claiming India's first-ever individual gold medal in Paralympic history.
In the same Games, he participated in javelin throw, precision javelin throw and slalom and ended finalist in all the meets.
AFP
Despite a total of four international medals in swimming, his record doesn't feature in the Paralympic Committee of India, who only started keeping records post 1984. "We don't have any record of his medal. We have record of Indian participation in Paralympics since 1984 when Joginder Singh Bedi won three medals for India in athletics," said Paralympics Committee of India official PV Raghunath in 2012 to Hindustan Times.
Hindu
With differently abled athletes and heroes Murlikant Petkar, Rajaram Ghag, Satya Prakash Tewari and Dilip Poudwal pic.twitter.com/por89mPGVa
¡ª soha ali khan (@sakpataudi) September 13, 2014
His achievements were featured in a book launched by former India captain Rahul Dravid, based on specially-abled athletes in 2014.
His story is inspiring! If he could excel with his limited abilities, what's stopping you.
