Not By Accident Alone

‘‘I was fitted with artificial legs in Pune, and then got the idea of helping disabled sportspersons. I started with racing on wheelchairs, won some medals here and there, but eventually spent more time on coaching.’’

The move towards developing equipment for disabled sportspersons started at the 1984 Paralympic Games in New York. ‘‘I made a basic mistake during the standing shot put and my artificial legs broke. There was bleeding, a few of the bones jutted out…That’s when I started thinking. And that also forced a rule change with separate categories being introduced for standing and wheelchair throwers.’’

When Mehendale started coaching, the big problem was a lack of history and precedent. There was scant idea of the rules and regulations, technique. ‘‘We only had — still do — books only in English, published from abroad. And hardly any of our disabled athletes can read English’’.

His coaching, then centres on interpreting these rules and regulations, and also distilling information from international publications. From there come new postures for powerlifting, coordination techniques for wheelchair sports.

Mehendale’s efforts have resulted in some of the better showings by Indian sportspersons down the years, including the lionhearted performance by swimmer Bhagwan Patil — without any of his limbs in place — at the 1984 Games. ‘‘My happiest moment was when Bhagwan finished the race. I had taught him everything…first threw him into the water. And he was such a brave boy.’’

The Dhyan Chand awardee is not part of the NPC or any other organised set up. He functions almost entirely out of the Shivaji Uday Mandal sports club close to his home. But that hasn’t stopped him from using charity money to organise camps for youngsters across India.

And now, ‘‘with my award and Devendra’s gold at Athens’’, Mehendale plans to go the whole hog. ‘‘I have spoken to President APJ Abdul Kalam and Sports Minister Sunil Dutt to ask for us to be recognised. I am sure it will work now,’’ Mehendale says.