 "Armless, bullied for disability, seven-months pregnant: Some of the most inspiring stories from Paralympics 2024")
Over the last few years, there have been several inspiring stories of differently abled athletes lighting up the global stage at various editions of the Paralympics. Take Indian athletes for example. Sheetal Devi, who does not have arms, competes in archery and even won a medal (bronze medal in mixed team compound) at the Paris Paralympics.
Paris Paralympics 2024: News | Medal Tally | India Schedule
Avani Lekhara, who has been paralysed waist-down due to a car accident when she was 11, has defied odds to win gold in consecutive editions of the Paralympics.
Here’s a look at a few athletes who have overcome odds that many of us would think were unsurmountable.
Sheetal Devi
Sheetal Devi was born in 2007 with phocomelia , which is a rare congenital disorder that leads to underdeveloped limbs. She was born without arms as a result and uses her feet to launch shots during archery competitions.
As per the official Olympics website, Sheetal enjoyed climbing trees when she was a child and she did that by just using her legs. It was during an army camp in 2019 when the Indian Army took note of Sheetal’s athleticism and has since supported her in terms of education and medical assistance.
Only 17-years-old!! 🤯
— Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu (@RobsonKanu) September 3, 2024
Sheetal Devi hit a perfect bullseye for Team India at the Paralympic Games 🏹 🇮🇳
She is the first female archer without any upper limbs with an international title.
Greatness isn’t about the absence of obstacles, but the ability to rise above them 🙌 pic.twitter.com/iXwxE53Oh6
Impact Shorts
More ShortsShe was introduced to archery for the first time in 2022 and that year, she visited the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board sports complex in Katra, Jammu, which is 200 kilometers from her home.
She met coaches Kuldeep Vedwan and Abhilasha Chaudhary there, who attempted to get prosthetics for the 17-year-old, although that did not work.
Despite that setback, Kuldeep and Abhilasha continued to coach Sheetal, using American legend Matt Stutzman as an inspiration.
Sheetal has ever since scaled new heights. She won gold in the individual compound open and mixed team compound open events at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year and won silver at the women’s doubles compound open.
At the 2023 World Para Championships, Stutzman was there to witness Sheetal and was impressed with her as she won an individual silver medal.
In the women’s individual compound event at the Paris Paralympics, Sheetal broke the initial world record, scoring 703 points in the ranking round, only to be surpassed by Turkey’s Oznur Cure (704 points).
Sheetal recently won bronze at the Paris Paralympics in the mixed team compound open tournament, after she teamed up with Rakesh Kumar.
Jodie Grinham
Jodie Grinham of Great Britain is a two-time Paris Paralympics medallist. She won gold in the mixed team compound archery and bronze in women’s compound archery. And both of these medals came at a time when she was seven months pregnant.
It was on 1 September when Jodie, 31, became the first pregnant athlete to win a medal at the Paralympics as she clinched bronze in the individual compound category. She was trailing fellow American Phoebe Paterson Pine in the bronze medal match but scripted a comeback with a nine and a couple of 10s to clinch the medal.
Jodie Grinham becomes the first pregnant champion in the history of the Paralympic Games. ⚡🔥#ParaArchery #ArcheryInParis pic.twitter.com/lz1R2V1Rwe
— World Archery (@worldarchery) September 3, 2024
“I wasn’t expecting that. I knew I could do it, but I didn’t mean ‘yeah, I’m gonna win a medal’. There was no guarantee,” she said after the match.
“That’s one of the biggest things I’ve said in interviews. I know people were already going to look at me and say ‘Oh, well done, you’ve done it. You’ve competed pregnant’. But I didn’t want that. I wanted more.”
“I wanted to show that I am not here to participate pregnant. I am here to compete and win medals pregnant. And I think I got that cross, which I’m really glad about,” she stated while adding that she felt the baby kick.
Dayna Crees
Australia’s Dayna Crees recently won bronze in the women’s javelin throw F34 final at the Paris Paralympics. While that achievement will be one to cherish for the rest of her life, she did not have a pleasant experience during her high school days. Crees has been diagnosed with hereditary spastic paraplegia since her birth, a condition that makes the muscles weak.
She dropped out of high school after she was bullied for her disability, and was a relatively obscure figure among Australia’s track and field team in Paris.
Well said Dayna Crees 💛💚
— Australian Institute of Sport (@theAIS) September 3, 2024
And well thrown with a personal best and bronze medal on your Paralympics debut!
Showing us how it's done 👏 🇦🇺 #Paris2024 | @AthsAust @AUSParalympics @VicInstSport pic.twitter.com/POSaPyyu7F
In France, where she made her Paralympics debut, she broke her personal record thrice, and revealed that she had Vegemite on toast for breakfast, a packet of lollies and drank lots of water. “I think that’s my new comp-day breakfast,” Crees said after the competition.
“I had a pasta salad for lunch and then out at the event I had Allan’s lollies from home which I’ve saved the whole trip just to have at the comp.
She recalled being bullied during school. “I had a rough time growing up in school, I was bullied a lot,” she said.
“I struggled a lot with my mental health and I’m such a big advocate for the younger generation dealing with mental health.” was on anti-depressants for three years and had a psychiatrist. Had I not gone and got the help, I might not have been in this position today.
“I truly believe I needed to leave school to get where I am today, to not see a point in being here. To get this far in a bronze medal at my first Paralympic Games - everything happens for a reason,” she added.
Tracy Otto
Just five years ago, in October 2019, American para-archer Tracy Otto and her boyfriend Ricky Riessle, were violently attacked at Otto’s home in Florida by her ex-boyfriend. He shot Otto through her left eye with a high-powered pellet gun, punched her repeatedly and knifed the back of her neck. Riessle was also seriously injured.
Half a decade later since that horrifying incident, Tracy Otto calls herself a Paralympian. At the 2024 Para Pan American Championships, Otto won gold in the mixed team W1 and the individual W1 events. A year prior to that, she took part in the 2023 Para Pan American Games, where she won gold in the individual event.
“I never thought that my life would rise from the ashes as it has. To be on the world stage is such an amazing experience,” the 28-year-old Otto said on Thursday after competing in the women’s individual ranking round as Paralympic events got underway. “I’m just so happy to be here and to be considered a Paralympian.”
Otto took up archery two years after the attack, which she openly talks about because she wants victims of violence to know they are not alone.
“You honestly have to love yourself through it … and keep going,” Otto said. “Your circumstances don’t define you. You can do anything you set your heart out to do.”
For Otto, archery is a distraction from her post-traumatic stress. “Archery is a big outlet for me, it helps me through that a big amount. Just finding ways to cope and surrounding myself with people that love and care about me,” she said.
Morning temperatures in Paris hovered around 21 degrees (70 F) and that made it tougher. Because of her injuries, heat is a major issue and Otto could not sit through all of Wednesday’s four-hour opening ceremony.
“I was stabbed in the back and in the neck and it severed my spinal cord and it causes me not to be able to thermal regulate,” Otto explained. “I can’t regulate my body temperature at all anymore. Sitting in the sun, my internal temperature goes up and I can’t sweat, so I can’t cool down. When I get too cold I shiver, but my body doesn’t warm up.”
Riessle shielded her with an umbrella and sprayed her face with cool water afterward. Otto has bowel and bladder complications and her brain also does not communicate properly with her body. A minor scratch can trigger off an excessive reaction in her body, increasing blood pressure and leaving her vulnerable to a heart attack.
However, for Otto, Riessle’s companionship is priceless. “He is my light. He’s my everything. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. Obviously, my body doesn’t function the way that it used to. After the attack happened and I did a little bit of rehab, I was left at a nursing home (in Chicago) by my family,” she said.
With inputs from The Associated Press
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