The Khel Ratna will definitely motivate me in my pursuit for gold at the 2021 Paralympics: T Mariyappan

Tamil Nadu’s Mariyappan Thangavelu hailing from Salem is among the four athletes to have been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Tuesday. 

The 25-year-old para-athlete is only the second sportsmen from the state — after Viswanathan Anand — to be bestowed with the award.

He caught everyone’s attention at the 2016 Rio Paralympics when he won the high-jump gold medal.

Mariyappan bagged bronze three years later in the men’s high jump event of the World Para Athletic Championships in Dubai, and qualified for Tokyo Paralympics.

Surreal experience for Mariyappan

“Though I am yet to officially get the award, but to feature in the list of recommendations alongside big names such as — Rohit Sharma, Vinesh Phogat and Manika Batra  — feels surreal. The Khel Ratna will definitely motivate me in my pursuit for gold at the 2021 Paralympics,” Mariyappan told TOI.

The COVID-19 pandemic has surely halted everyone but for Mariyappan lockdown meant that he had to resort to only strength training in the last few months.

“I have never been away from doing high-jumps for this many months. But that’s the case with most athletes across the world as these are unprecedented times. I hope to resume my full-fledged training in the coming months,” said Mariyappan. He, along with his long-time coach Satyanarayana, took a short break to visit his mother in Salem.

Coach Satyanarayana eager to get back his disciple to full fitness

Satyanarayana said, “He (Mariyappan) is blessed with a flexible body. Mariyappan may not have done the high jumps for the last few months, but will regain form once we start our sessions. Hopefully, we will kick-off our training from October.”

Satyanarayana isn’t too worried about Mariyappan’s lack of practice.

 “There is a natural tendency for athletes to put on some weight when they don’t engage in full-fledged training sessions. But thankfully, that’s not been the case with him,” the coach said.

As all that the coach wanted Mariyappan to do was to watch his weight.

“I don’t have any such plans at this point. My first aim will be to get to the physical shape I was before the lockdown and take things forward from there on,” Mariyappan replied when he was asked in his plans to train abroad ahead of the Paralympics.

Mariyappan feels the honour is a result for all the hard yards he has put in over the years.