"Never Made Myself An Object Of Pity": 200m Para Athlete Rajesh K

When the 200m final of the T64 category started at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Monday, it was being telecast live on a big screen at Annai Vailankanni College in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu, thousands of kilometers away from here because one of the blade runners of this college, Rajesh K was participating in the first-ever Khelo India Para Games. The college administration wanted every child to see Rajesh performing because his story is that of immense courage. Rajesh lit up the track of JLN Stadium with his performance and won the gold medal in 200 meters.

After this, Rajesh also took part in long jump on Tuesday but he finished disappointingly in fifth place. But there is no place for words like disappointment or frustration in the personal life of Rajesh, who lost his leg at the age of just 6 months.

The personal life of Rajesh, who practices under the supervision of Nitin Choudhary at the Sai Center in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), is full of such incidents that would make anyone sigh, but he never considered himself an object of pity. Rajesh wants to register his name in history.

Rajesh said, "I want to earn a name like India's gold medal winning Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu. I want to be like German para long jump athlete Markus Rehm, who made the world record in the T64 long jump category. Disability never became an obstacle in my path. I never let it affect me and always thought like a normal person. I have never made myself an object of pity."

When asked whether he was disabled by birth, Rajesh said, "No, I am not disabled by birth. I was born a normal child but due to an infection in my legs, I had to undergo treatment. While giving the injection, the needle broke in my leg and the poison spread due to this. Then,