Meet Yogesh Kathuniya – The 29-Year-Old Indian To Win Back-To-Back Paralympic Silver Medals

Paris: Yogesh Kathuniya became one of the few Indians to have back-to-back Paralympics medals after the 29-year-old secured a silver in Paris in men’s discus throw F-56 event with a season’s best performance. Kathuniya hurled the discus to 42.22m in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.
Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, creating a new Games record with an effort of 46.86m in his fifth attempt. Greece’s Konstantinos Tzounis won the bronze with 41.32m. The F-56 is a seating field event class for differently-abled athletes. People with amputations and spinal cord injuries take part in this classification.
But little did we know about Kathuniya’s inspiring journey.
Kathuniya was born to parents Meena Devi and her husband Gyanchand Kathuniya, who is employed with the Indian Army. At the age of nine, Kathuniya developed Guillain–Barre syndrome. He studied at Indian Army Public School in Chandigarh.
Seeing her son’s plight Meena Devi learnt physiotherapy, and within three years, at the age of 12,Kathuniya regained muscle strength to walk again.
He later attended Kirori Mal College in Delhi, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and joined para games. Kathuniya qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and competed in the men’s discus throw F56 event. He threw the disc to 44.38 m and won a silver medal for India. He was honored with the Arjuna Award by the then President Ram Nath Kovind, in November 2021 for his achievement at the Paralympics.
In 2016, he took up para sports after Sachin Yadav, General Secretary of the students’ union at Kirori Mal College motivated him to take up sports by regularly showing him videos of para-athletes. In 2018, he set a world record by throwing the disc to 45.18 m at the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin.
His consistency in winning medals in major tournaments, such as the Paralympics 2020, the World Championship 2023 and the Asian Para Games 2022 has made a lasting impression on the history of Para Athletics.