His left leg being shorter and weaker than his proper due to a congenital impairment didn’t deter a younger Praveen Kumar from doing what he liked probably the most as a baby, biking along with his mates. He would cycle 14 kilometres every day to succeed in college — from his village Gobindgarh to Jewar.
“By no means did he complain about any bodily discomfort due to biking,” Praveen’s father Amarpal,a tube effectively operator, advised The Indian Categorical. And he hardly complained in any other case too.
On the day Parveen gained gold within the males’s excessive soar T64, an improve of the silver he gained in Tokyo three years in the past, Amarpal was overjoyed. His greatest soar of two.08 metres was an Asia report and his private greatest too.
Praveen Kumar clinches gold 🥇 at #Paris2024 along with his season’s greatest soar of two.08 m 🤯
Watch the #Paralympics LIVE on #JioCinema 👈#ParalympicsOnJioCinema #JioCinemaSports #ParalympicsParis2024 #HighJump pic.twitter.com/k6zLWLU9XD
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) September 6, 2024
“To see him successful the gold after the silver medal in Tokyo Paralympics is particular for Praveen as effectively all of us, together with his brother Sachin and sister Priya, who’ve all the time supported his dream of successful medals for India,” Amarpal added.
“When he was born with the leg impairment, we raised him like some other baby. That helped him have a constructive perspective all his life,” Amarpal added.
Praveen began off with volleyball on the Pragyan Public College, Jewar, earlier than an opportunity assembly with Dronacharya awardee coach Dr Satya Pal Singh throughout a district-level competitors bought him taken with excessive soar.
“The factor which galvanized me in Parveen was the power in his proper leg. He used to cycle rather a lot in his childhood and it helped him develop the muscle mass in his proper leg. He began with the straddle method in excessive soar earlier than slowly growing the Fosbury Flop method,” coach Satya Pal stated.
Regardless of being simply 5 foot and 5 inches tall, Praveen soared over 1.70 metres simply a few years after getting formal teaching.
“The important thing in Fosbury Flop is to have power within the again as one falls after clearing the bar. So we needed to work on strengthening his again. From fitness center work to sprints, we did particular coaching for growing his again to grasp the method. The power in his proper leg helped to offer the explosive push,” Singh stated.
In 2019 Praveen travelled to Switzerland for Worldwide Paralympic Committee (IPC) classification. The IPC officers labeled him within the T64 class. “Once we went to classification, Praveen was labeled in T64, the place athletes having a lot much less impairment than him competed. He was depressed for days. However then I made him perceive that regardless of the class be, we are going to put together exhausting and provides our greatest,” Satya Pal added.
In 2019, Parveen gained the silver medal within the World Junior Para Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland other than a gold medal in Para World Grand Prix in Fazza the identical yr. On the Tokyo Paralympics, Parveen made a greatest soar of two.07m to complete behind Nice Britain’s Jonathan Broom-Edwards. Final yr, Praveen gained the bronze medal within the World Para Championships and in addition emerged champion on the Para Asian Video games.
Earlier this yr, Praveen suffered a setback when a shot put landed on his foot throughout coaching. He was sidelined for greater than a month.
Praveen would additionally spend time speaking with fellow UP athletes like sprinter Preeti Pal and shuttler Suhas Yathiraj to maintain himself motivated. “All of the seven different para athletes from Uttar Pradesh who have been set to compete within the Paris Paralympics saved in contact with Praveen and it helped him deal with restoration,” Kavinder Chaudhary, president of the UP Para Sports activities Affiliation, stated.
As for his dad and mom, they understand how Praveen will have a good time the medal when he will get again. “He’ll cycle along with his mates. That’s one factor which he has all the time liked,” Amritpal stated.