India’s Strong Start at the Paris Paralympics 2024:-
India has been performing very well since the beginning in the Paris Paralympics 2024. Till now, in just two days, India has won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals, but do you know about the dark reality of this Paralympics?
A Promising Start for India:-
Paris Paralympics 2024 has started. India has sent 84 of its athletes in this tournament which will run from 28th August to 8th September, which is very good. Performing well, if we look at the history, India had given its best performance in Tokyo Paralympics 2020 in which India won 19 medals including five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.
Now India is on fire in Paris Paralympics 2020. Looking at the beginning, it seems that India will be successful in winning around 25 medals this time.
Now let us know what is Paralympics and when did it start. Paralympics can be broken into two words, Para and Olympic, Para is a Greek term.
Understanding the Paralympics:-
Which means along the side i.e. if we look at the whole term together then the tournament held along with the Olympics which is organized for physically challenged people. Now let us also know how it started. Well, it is about one and a quarter year. Earlier, a club was started in Berlin for physically challenged athletes, but on 29 July 1948, in the Olympic Games held in London, Dr.
Gutman organized a game for wheel chair athletes for the first time in which 16 injured servicemen and women were included. The foundation was laid for challenge athletes to compete in the Olympic Games, but the first independent Paralympic Games was organized in 1977 in which 400 athletes from 23 countries participated and after this, like the Olympics, Paralympic Games also started being organized every 4 years.
India’s Journey in the Paralympics:-
India entered the Paralympic Games in 1972, when the Winter Games were organized for the first time in Sweden. This was the same year when India’s Murlikant Petkar, known as Chandu Champion, won the gold medal in swimming men’s 50 meter free style. After which a movie was also made on him and he was also honored with Khel Ratna in 2018.
This was the only medal that India won in the 1972 Paralympic Games, then two silvers in 1984, two bronzes in 2004, one gold, one bronze and one silver in 2012. In 2016, she won two gold, one silver and one bronze and then in 2020, she won five gold, eight silver and six bronze, which was India’s best performance till date in the Paralympic Games.
The Dark Reality of the Paralympics:-
This is all good things. Now come the Paralympic Games. If we look at the dark reality, this Paralympic fire is not found even a little bit and as the Paralympic Games are becoming popular, there are many countries whose athletes are ready to do anything to win medals by showing fake disability and this Everything is due to the negligence of the selection committee or in other words, due to sixty ghats.
In a case study, it was told that athletes very cleverly manage to fake their disabilities in the selection process. Let us understand from the example that some swimmers are like this. There are those who keep their hands tied with straps for a few days before getting categorized, due to which their muscles get stuffed and when they go in front of the selection committee, their hands are not able to open completely due to which.They easily get enrollment in the disabled category.
Similarly, some athletes underperform during the selection process and sometimes there have been reports of tampering with body organs. The biggest mistake of the selection process and the selection committee in the year 2000.
The Spanish Basketball Scandal:-
This came to light when in the Paralympic Games held in Sweden, all 12 players of a Spanish basketball team managed to win gold by lying, meaning that 12 of those 12 athletes were much higher than the IQ level of 75 in the set category and were professionals for many years. After investigation, when this case was proved in 2017, basketball itself was removed from Paralympics. After this, the selection committee increased the vigilance of the selection process. So did you know about this dark reality of Paralympic Games? Despite all this, Fan following of Paralympic Games is increasing very fast all over the world.
The Growing Popularity of the Paralympics:-
If we look at ticket selling, then ticket selling of Paralympic Games is at third place in the world, Olympics is at second place and FIFA World Cup is at first place. If we look at Rio Paralympics, 2.15 million tickets were sold, whereas in Tokyo Paralympics in 2020, this ticket selling increased to 2.7 million, but what is the benefit of this increasing popularity, let me show you some photos. If you recognize anyone, then mention his name in the comment section. Please do mention [Music] There may be many of you who do not recognize any of these, I too did not recognize many of these faces before researching this video but now I know that all these athletes are participating in the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020 and in 2024.
There are athletes who have won gold, silver and bronze medals for India in the ongoing Paris Paralympics, who come into limelight only when they participate in the Paralympics and win gold, silver or bronze medals for India. Even if they do not win, no one knows them.