52 Years After Historic First Paralympics Gold, Para-Swimmer Murlikant Petkar Receives Arjuna Award
The Sports Ministry made some more course corrections and awarded the Arjuna Award (Lifetime) to para-swimmer Murlikant Rajaram Petkar, India's first gold medallist in the Paralympic Games, conferring on him the prestigious award 52 years after he made history for the country in Heidelberg, Germany. A soldier with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) of the Indian Army, when he suffered a debilitating injury that rendered him paraplegic, Petkar won the gold medal in the men's 50m freestyle swimming in the 1972 Paralympic Games at Heidelberg, Germany, becoming the first Indian to bag an individual gold medal in the Olympics or Paralympic Games.
