A total of 89 Indian athletes went for the Special Olympics Winter Games held in Austria recently and came home with a total of 73 medals. Competing against 2,700 athletes from 107 countries, the Indian contingent won 37 gold, 10 silver and 26 bronze medals at the Games held from 19-24 March.
They participated in Alpine skiing, snow boarding, snow shoeing, figure skating, speed skating, floor hockey, floor ball (and unified floor ball), at the mega event.
Here’s a look at four of the athletes who made India proud at the international sporting event.
Tanu
Tanu stood fourth in the figure skating event at the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017, but her journey from Sonipat district in Haryana to Austria is re-assurance that the 13-year-old is not one to give up.
Tanu was born with learning disabilities. For two months before the mega event, Tanu, along with a teacher and six other athletes, travelled to Gurugram at 4 am, three days a week, to practise figure skating under professional guidance. Back in her school in Sonipat, she practised every day.
Tanu comes from a humble background and has been luck to have extremely supportive parents.
She joined the Special Olympics Bharat programme in 2012 through her special school and was placed under the mentorship of coach Sunita. At the time, she was extremely shy and seldom spoke. Her regular participation in the preparatory camps brought tremendous change in her confidence levels and social behaviour.
Shamsher Singh
Shamsher Singh opened India’s medal tally at the recently concluded Austria Games with a silver in the snow shoeing 100 metre race. The 24-year-old missed the gold medal by literally a whisker – less than a second.
Singh ended the race in 19.55 secs, ahead of his Canadian rival (19.89 secs) while trailing the athlete from Macau (19.39 secs).
Intellectual disability and cerebal palsy failed to deter Shamsher, who hails from Ropar in Punjab. He took up a relatively lesser known sport and went on to win big at the world stage.
Jyoti Bala
The female cadre of 41 athletes weren’t far behind in the shoe shoeing event. Jyoti Bala from Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development, Kangra clinched a bronze in the 100-metre race, finishing it in 32.39 seconds.
The 16-year-old, the third among four sisters, was born with intellectual disabilities. Hailing from a city in Himachal Pradesh that doesn’t experience snow, Jyoti worked relentlessly and even practised on sand to reach great heights.
Bala’s parents, who run a small shop in the city, were left amazed by their daughter’s ability and her victory.
Sarita Routary
Part of the bronze medal winning floor hockey team at the Special Olympic World Winter Games, Sarita Routary’s journey to Austria has been an arduous one.
Assessed with mild intellectual disability and hearing impairment, she was enrolled in the Centre of Special Education for Children with Multiple Disabilities when she was 9-years-old.
Sarita has trained in cycling and has participated in the National Championships in both floorball and floor hockey.
Her father is a person with hearing impairment and earns a paltry sum by painting houses. Most of the time, he keeps ill and is unable to go out for work to earn his livelihood. Sarita’s mother opened a small grocery store in their temporary house in a slum in Bhubaneswar to augment the family income.
Sarita, by dint of her determination, has overcome all these hurdles and has acquired skills in various sports. She aspires to have more money to take care of her family some day.
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