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Journalism of Courage
India’s Kapil Parmar on Thursday created history when he won a bronze medal at the Paralympics, becoming India’s first-ever para judo medallist. He defeated Brazil’s Elielton de Oliveira in the men’s 60kg (J1) to achieve that feat.
Parmar produced a superlative performance, dominating his opponent from start to finish to record a 10-0 win in the bronze medal contest. He had earlier lost to S Banitaba Khorram Abadi in the semifinals, beaten 0-10 by his Iranian opponent here at the Champs-de-mart arena.
Kapil hails from Shivor, a small village in Madhya Pradesh and is the youngest of four brothers and a sister. His father is a taxi driver while his sister runs a primary school. His middle brother, who practices judo is often Kapil’s training partner.
When he was a child, Kapil had an accident when he was playing in the fields of his village and accidentally touched a water pump, resulting in a severe electric shock. He was found unconscious by a and taken to the hospital in Bhopal, where he remained in a coma for six months.
Following his recovery, he was advised by doctors to gain weight. It was during this period that he discovered blind judo through the encouragement of his mentor and coaches, Bhagwan Das and Manoj Sir, who motivated him to pursue the sport competitively.
The athlete has won a silver medal in the Asian Para Games 2022 and a gold in the Commonwealth Championships in 2019. He also won gold in the IBSA Judo Grand Prix Antalya in 2024 as well as a gold in IBSA Judo Grand Prix Tbilisi in the same year. In 2023 he nabbed another gold in the IBSA Judo Grand Prix Alexandria and also won a bronze in the IBSA World Games in 2023.
