The men behind Simran Sharma and Preethi Pal's historic medals at Paris Paralympics 2024

Simran Sharma and Preethi Pal were among many Indian sportspersons who created history at the recently concluded Paris Paralympics 2024. What made Simran and Preethi’s bronze medal wins even more special was the fact that it came in track events as India won a record 29 medals in Paris.

Preethi became the first Indian track athlete to win a medal at the Paralympics when she won bronze in the 100m T35 category and later won another bronze in the 200m race. Simran won India’s first-ever medal (bronze) in the women’s 200m T12 race.

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T12 is a category for athletes with visual impairment while the T35 is for sprinters who are moderately affected in the legs.

Apart from being history makers, there’s another thing common between Simran and Preethi. Both are trained by Gajendra Singh, who works for the Army Service Corps.

Paralympics 2024:  How India achieved its biggest medal haul in Paris

Gajendra is also married to Simran whom he met at MM College grounds in Modinagar. In an interview with the Times of India, Gajendra revealed that he spotted the talent in Simran in their first meeting and later decided to train her.

“I helped her take up running and worked on building her muscle strength and stamina before concentrating on her technique. There were times when I would request the stadium authorities to make the ground available to us late in the night so that I could train her after returning from my other coaching duties,” Gajendra revealed to TOI.

The breakthrough for Simran and Gajendra came in 2019 when the former won gold at the World Para Athletics Championship, besides winning gold and silver at the 2021 World Para Athletics Championship and gold again at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championship.

Read: How Simran defied financial constraints, personal loss to win Paralympics bronze

Apart from Gajendra, another man who played a major role in helping Simran win a record Paralympics is Abhay Singh who was her guide runner in the Paris Paralympics 2024.

Simran had earlier planned to run with upcoming start athlete Animesh Kujur but due to scheduling issues, Abhay took up the job. To improve coordination among them, Simran and Abhay ran together multiple races in practice sessions.

“As we practiced more, our timing, coordination and understanding of the race improved. We won gold at the World para athletics which was a huge achievement. And then came this Paralympics bronze. I don’t have words to describe my feelings. It’s like I am living my own dreams through her success,” said Abhay.

The 18-year-old Abhay, who hails from Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, is the current U20 national champion in the 200m.

Gajendra’s guidance to Preethi

Simran also played a major role in pushing Gajendra to train Preethi. Unlike Simran, Preethi doesn’t hail from Delhi and comes from Muzaffarnagar in UP. She took up para-athletics after watching the Paralympics on the phone and later shifted to Delhi for better coaching.

“While Simran had the experience of competing internationally for India, Preeti’s training was going nowhere in Meerut. So, after she joined me, I focused on building her strength and stamina, improved her dietary intake and worked intensively on her recovery period post the training sessions,” Gajendra said.

Read: All you need to know about history-maker Preethi Pal

“I simultaneously imparted training to both with Abhay as Simran’s guide. I must admit the training sessions were quite rigorous but both my wards never gave up on their dreams,”

Simran won two bronze medals at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championship and is now a two-time Paralympics medallist.