Devendra Jhajharia born on was born in 1981 & he hails from the Churu District in Rajasthan, India.
Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajaria is the only Indian to have ever won two gold medals at Paralympic games – one at the 2004 Athens Paralympics and another at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
He has held a world record (62.15m in javelin throw) and is the first para-athlete to be given the prestigious Padma Shri. In 2004, he was also awarded the Arjuna Award.
At age of eight, while he was climbing a tree in his village, he accidentally touched a live cable, which was apparently an 11,000-volt cable.
So severe was the accident that (his left hand) had to be amputated right away — nobody was sure whether I would be able to recover from it. Facing ridicule and sympathetic criticism among friends and villagers only motivated him to make it big.
Soon, he would reach the sports fields, his internal motivation made him to achieve his goal. Devendra went on to make his first javelin with locally available bamboo.
He said that “When I looked around I saw so many people who didn’t have both arms or both legs and I thought I was lucky to have my right hand.”
He is the only Indian who has won two gold medals at Paralympics. He is currently training very hard for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympic.
Team Saachibaat wishes Devendra Jhajharia Good luck for upcoming Tokyo Paralympics!
