India made its Paralympics debut at the 1968 Games Organised under the guidance of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF) at Tel Aviv, Israel. The Asian country has featured in every Paralympic Games since then with the 1976 and 1980 Games held in Canada and Netherlands respectively being the exceptions.
The nation’s first medal, which is also the first individual gold medal, was won in the 1972 Games by Murlikant Petkar. Petkar took the pole position in the 50-meter freestyle in a world record time of 37.331 seconds. In India’s next appearance, in 1984, Joginder Singh Bedi won silver at the men’s shot put and followed it up with a pair of bronze winning performances in the discus and javelin throws to become the country’s first multi medallist Paralympian.
India’s best performance in Paralympics
The first week of the Tokyo Paralympics saw India cross double digits on the medals tally. This is India’s best performance at the quadrennial event. The medal tally was opened by para paddler Bhavina Patel on the third day of the Tokyo Games as she clinched a silver medal, India’s first in the sport. As the event progressed it seemed like the floodgates of medals were left loose.
Following the para paddler’s footsteps, Nishad Kumar smashed the Asian record to bag the men’s high jump T-46 event. Devendra Jhajharia and Sundar Singh Gurjar added a silver and bronze medal in the javelin’s throw before Avani Lekhara scripted history to become the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal. Yogesh secures a silver in Men’s Discus Throw F56 category to take India’s tally past four, the nation’s previous best outing which was achieved in 1984 and 2016.
Sumit Antil then smashed the World record thrice in the javelin throw F-64 category to bag India’s second gold medal of the campaign. On the seventh day, pistol shooter Singhraj Adhana‘s bronze, high jumpers Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar silver and bronze medals took the country’s tally to ten, the best ever performance for the Asian country.
Also Read | History! Gold for Sumit in Javelin as India’s Medal Tally Continues to Grow in Tokyo
India at Paralympics
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | Rank |
| 1960 Rome | Did Not Participate | ||||
| 1964 Tokyo | Did Not Participate | ||||
| 1968 Tel Aviv | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 1972 Heidelberg | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
| 1976 Toronto | Did Not Participate | ||||
| 1980 Arnhem | Did Not Participate | ||||
| 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 37 |
| 1988 Seoul | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 1992 Barcelona | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 1996 Atlanta | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 2000 Sydney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 2004 Athens | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 53 |
| 2008 Beijing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – |
| 2012 London | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 67 |
| 2016 Rio de Janeiro | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 43 |
| 2020 Tokyo | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 30 |
| Total | 9 | 7 | 22 | 67 |
Gold medals won by India in Paralympics
In the 12 Paralympic Games that India has featured in, the country boasts of only six gold medals. Murlikant Petkar opened India’s medal tally at the Paralympics and also that of gold medals at the event back in 1972. It took 32 years for the nation to win its next gold medal which came courtsey Devendra in the Athens Games.
Ever Since the 2016 Rio Games, India has managed to bag two gold medals for two consecutive editions of the Paralympics. Of the five Indians Paralympians who have bagged a gold medal, ace javelin thrower Devendra is the only athlete with multiple pole postion finish at the marquee event.
Also read: Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Avani Lekhara rewrites Paralympic record to clinch India’s first gold medal
