Our other Olympians

8216;8216;Now we can fight for our cause with a louder voice,8217;8217; says last year8217;s Arjuna awardee, badminton player Ramesh Tikaram.

What it will definitely do is give hope for a better future to hundreds of other disabled sportspersons. And give a huge impetus to their fight to be treated at par with 8216;8216;regular8217;8217; sportspersons.

8216;8216;Nothing can stop us now from taking up the issue with the government8217;8217;, Tikaram says. 8216;8216;If Rathore or Anju get so much for their efforts, why shouldn8217;t Devendra or any of us?8217;8217;

Indeed, the past week has been a watershed for the fledgling, low-key movement. M Srinivas Rao was awarded the Arjuna and Digambor Parasuram Mehendale the Dhyan Chand award by President APJ Abdul Kalam on September 21. Then came Devendra8217;s epoch-making throw, when he bettered his own world mark of 59.77m at the javelin with an effort of 62.15m.

All of which raises the question: should the disabled athlete be treated at par with the 8216;regular8217; athlete? Do disabled athletes actually work hard to reach where they do? Is the competition Indians have won six medals, including two golds, at the Paralympics since 1972 fierce enough? Or do they just get by on the sympathy wave?

If what makes an able-bodied athlete is his/her training regimen, technical ability, mental strength, skill level, the the same factors make a disabled athlete. Except that for an able-bodied athlete, injury or physical discomfort is often reason to skip an event. For a disabled athlete8230;well, you know.

Mehendale, who has worked for long with disabled sportspersons see box, left, talks about the kind of training his average ward goes through. 8216;8216;I involve my athletes in weight training every alternate day,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;Obviously it is designed to account for the disability and the focal area. If it8217;s someone on a wheelchair, a sprint on the chair in the mornings, if it is someone who can run, a jog in the morning. It is all according to the need and the handicap.8217;8217;

One man who has spent many years coaching disabled badminton players is Thangirala James. Able-bodied unlike Mehendale and coach of the Indian badminton team for the 2004 Asia Cup, he says, 8216;8216;Well, it is simpler to train a 8216;normal8217; youngster. But that8217;s only in the physical part of it. The mental part of becoming a sportsperson is much, much stronger among the disabled. When an athlete goes out for a sprint on his wheelchair in the morning or a person with a Jaipur Foot refuses to stop jogging before completing the laps8230;it8217;s not something we can do.8217;8217;

A powerlifter 8212; usually without the lower limbs 8212; will therefore qualify for the bench-press routine, lie on his back and lift weights straight up in front of him. Similarly, a swimmer will need the help of an able-bodied person at the diving board. But after that, as Arjuna Award-winning coach Vijay Muneshwar says, 8216;8216;there is no stopping them8217;8217;. Forget about disability and discomfort.

Another common characteristic among disabled sportspersons is their proficiency in several sports, often unconnected. A wheelchair badminton player doubles up as a shot-putter, javelin thrower and discus thrower and a volleyballer is also an athlete.

Why, and doesn8217;t that dilute an athlete8217;s claims?

India8217;s best-known disabled sportsperson Boniface Prabhu, for example, is a tennis player par excellence-cum-track athlete-cum-thrower. Srinivas Rao plays badminton, lifts weights, swims and has done 8216;8216;most things but boxing8217;8217;.

Tikaram explains: 8216;8216;It all depends on where you can get in. There is practically no administration in place. As a result, during meets, athletes enter as many disciplines as they can, because it raises their chances of a medal and the benefits read: job from it.8217;8217;

Kolkata-based Gopal Karmakar 8212; without power in either of his legs 8212; adds another angle. 8216;8216;There are so few meets for us to take part in. What we do therefore is take part in whatever sport is happening, and take part in competitions. If I were an athlete, I would compete only two weeks, maybe four, a year. So I run in athletic competitions, lift weights at powerlifting meets, and play table tennis.8217;8217;

That8217;s the positive side of things. One of the closest resemblances between sport for the disabled and regular sport is the manner in which they are run. The fact that the National Paralympic Council is in charge of everything is a problem, says Tikaram. 8216;8216;It should be like the IOA, with different sports conducted by the different federations. That way, athletes can be affiliated to particular sports and everything becomes more organised.8217;8217;

But to be fair, it8217;s not just an Indian problem. Trischa Zorn, for example, can cock a snook at all the talk of Mark Spitz versus Michael Phelps. The American has 54 Paralympic medals with 41 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronzes. Not to mention eight world records. She suffers from a visual impairment called aniridia absence of the iris and has swum everything and everywhere.

Which brings us back to the original question: How different are these sportspersons from their better-known brethren? In terms of achievement, ability, effort and objective, they are the same. At the end of the day, all they need is recognition 8212; and minus the sympathy, please 8212; that they are sportspersons.

Perhaps one week in September will have helped them take a giant stride to that end.