World Para Athletics Championships’s double medal-winning Indian sprinter Preeti Pal’s moving story shows the stirring stuff that champions are made of
Sprinter Preeti Pal with her two World Para Athletics Championships medals and two Paris Paralympics medals during a felicitation function at the Bombay Gymkhana on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje
Indian para athlete Preeti Pal, who was born with cerebral palsy, enthralled her audience at the Bombay Gymkhana club during a moving fireside chat on Tuesday evening.
The felicitation ceremony in association with Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) celebrated her two World Para Athletics Championships 2025 medals — a silver in the women’s 100m (T35 category) and a bronze in the women’s 200 m (T35) event that she won in New Delhi recently. Pal previously won two bronze medals in the women’s 100m and 200m at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Criticism from society
“I was born in a village [Hashimpur] in Uttar Pradesh. At my birth, people in my village by and large reacted with disappointment, telling my father, ‘you now have another daughter, after your elder one. This one is afflicted with cerebral palsy. What will she do?’ My father told me he had replied then, ‘she is my daughter. I will bring her up to be independent’ and he did,” Pal spoke of her early days to former India badminton star Ajay Jayaram, who was anchoring the chat.
India’s Preeti Pal during the women’s 100m T35 final at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi on October 5. Pic/PTI
Pal revealed that she was the object of ridicule too due to her condition. “I used to be ridiculed on the streets often. I had comments thrown at me like: ‘See how she walks.’ Those words cut like a knife. They were so hurtful, but they also lit a fire in my heart. I was determined to show these people what I could do, prove them wrong, somehow. I wanted to show what I could do for India,” she added.
Living with her grandparents as a teen in Meerut, Pal said she was always interested in sport. “I once competed in a local sports meet without telling anyone, and won two medals in the sprints. That was years ago. My sporting journey had begun.”
The diminutive Pal revealed that she first learnt about para sports after watching Instagram reels. She then climbed the sporting rungs quickly, and with support from friends, family, her coach and OGQ, she found herself catapulted to the international stage.
“Earlier, I would let pressure get the better of me. Before the Paris 2024 Paralympics, my coach told me, ‘Think of this as your workout, absolutely no pressure.’ Yet my legs were shaking when I went towards the start line. Then, as the gun went off, only the finish line was in front of me. I ran my heart, soul and lungs out and medalled [bronze] for India. Chants of ‘India, India’ rang in my ears. The OGQ team got emotional. In the 200m, there was less pressure, and I once again won bronze,” added Pal, looking visibly moved as she received a standing ovation.
Of her silver (100m) and bronze (200m) at the World Para Athletics Championships recently, Pal said, “There was some pressure. Currently, I live and train in Delhi, so this was my home ground. Here too, I finished on the podium and that too after the 100m had to be re-run. I had given my all in the 100m earlier but a technical error meant we had to run it again. And despite that jumble, after some time out regaining strength, I medalled in the race again.”
Lots of love post Paris Games
Pal, 25, recalled her heroic homecoming after the Paris Games. “When I arrived home post the Paralympics, I had a cavalcade of cars behind me. People were cheering, they were giving me their little children to bless! ‘Aashirwaad, aashirwaad’ they kept saying. I was embarrassed. I said, ‘I am not God, just a human being’. But the biggest reward for me was seeing the same people, who taunted my father about me, offering him garlands and laddoos now.”
Pal’s next target is the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. “I want to improve on my personal best and change the colour of my medal at the next Asian Games. After a month’s rest, we start training again,” she added.
14.21s
Bronze in 100m (T35) at Paralympics
30.01s
Bronze in the 200m (T35) at Paralympics
14.33s
Silver in 100m (T35) at World Para C’ships
30.03s
Bronze in 200m (T35) at World Para C’ships
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
