31 July,2026 08:59 AM IST | Mumbai | Rohit Mahajan
Murali Sreeshankar during the men’s long jump event. Pic/PTI ; (inset) Sreeshankar points to his damaged knee. Pic/Rohit Mahajan
Moments after winning his second Commonwealth Games silver in the men's long jump at the Scotstoun Stadium on Wednesday night - he finished second at the 2022 Birmingham CWG too - Murali Sreeshankar suddenly bends down and rolls up his trousers to display his left knee while speaking to reporters. "See this! If you were to ask a doctor if a long jumper with this knee could compete, you'd be told, âNo, it's not possible'," he says.
Sreeshankar is very emotional and proud, and not without good reason. His 8.09m leap was bested only by Jamaica's Tajay Gayle (8.15m).
Above all though, the 27-year-old Indian long jumper from Kerala put to rest the doubts and fear that had haunted him after the horrific injury he suffered on April 16, 2024, while training in Palakkad. He had felt an unbearable pain shoot through his left knee due to a ruptured patellar tendon, and 10 days later, underwent surgery in Doha, ending his Paris 2024 Olympics dream. He thought his career, too, was over. "Coming back from that injury, when I could barely walk, let alone jump, is something not everyone can do," says Sreeshankar, who is proud to be back from the brink, where he went 650 days without competing.
The patellar tendon is called a jumper's tendon, and Sreeshankar explains that while every jumper has inflammation in his tendon, his tendon got severed, and part of the bone also chipped off. "Doctors told me, âYou won't be a long jumper again.' But I did it - after surgery and rehab, I gained strength, I gained control over my body and mind, and here I am. I'm just thankful that I'm able to jump. To jump with a surgically repaired tendon is not easy. I have three metal screws on my tendon. There's a wire that goes around my kneecap, holding the tendon together," explained Sreeshankar.
02
No. of Commonwealth Games medals for Sreeshankar; he won silver in 2022 too
