Mariyappan Thangavelu Biography 
Mariyappan Thangavelu is a Paralympic high jumper from Salem, Tamil Nadu. He came to spotlight when he won gold in the men's high jump T-42 category in 2016 Summer Paralympic games held in Rio de Janeiro. He is India's first Paralympian gold medallist since 2004. For his contributions towards sports, especially athletics, Government of India honoured him with the fourth highest civilian honour - Padma Shri in 2017. He also received Arjuna award the same year.
In October 2018, he was the flag bearer for the 2018 Asian Para Games held in Jakarta. He has been offered the post of a coach with the Sports Authority of India. For his contributions, he has been honoured with state governments of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, many other personalities like Sachin Tendulkar and organizations like Yash Raj Films.
Mariyappan Thangavelu was born in 1995 in Periavadagampatti, Salem district, Tamil Nadu. He has 5 siblings. His father abandoned the family, and the young children were brought up by their mother facing a lot of hardships. She did a lot of odd jobs like a daily wage labourer carrying bricks, vegetable vendor etc, earning just 100 rupees a day. Mariyappan met with an accident when he was only 5 years old, and his leg got crushed below the knee when a drunken bus driver ran the bus over him. Though he became disabled, he completed his matriculation.
While at school, he loved playing volleyball. Later his school physical education instructor encouraged him to try high jumping. He attended his first competition at the age of 14 and was placed second among a field of able-bodied competitors. After that he received a lot of encouragement from others and he decided to pursue a profession in this field which he succeeded. He received advanced training from current coach Mr.Satyanarayana, who brought him to Bangalore for this purpose.
Published: February 03, 2019
Updated: February 03, 2019
