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Flying high on broken wings

It’s almost 14 years now, a former national-level hockey player, Amit Saroha, is living his sports’ dreams on a wheelchair. It was a horrific night of September in 2007, when a road accident confined him to a wheelchair forever.

Accident gave him a severe spine injury and a permanent disability, but it was his never say die attitude that helped him carve out a sports career even on a wheelchair.

An Arjuna awardee in para-sports, Saroha is competing in his third Paralympics in Tokyo. He will participate in the club throw event in the F-51 category – below waist paraplegic.

Saroha missed a bronze medal by a whisker in 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. In the 2017 World Championship he won silver with a throw of 30.25m. He also holds the Asian record in the event.

From hockey turf to para-sports

Saroha, a former national-level hockey player, was introduced to para-sports in 2007.

“It was September 21, 2007, when in a road accident I had severe spinal injury and after a few days of treatment I was told by the doctors that for the rest of my life I would be in a wheelchair. For a moment it came to my mind that everything is over for me. But then I realized that the accident gave me permanent disability and I didn’t lose my life. So, whatever happened was my destiny,” recalls Saroha, who hails from village Bayanpur, Sonepat. “I consider the date of the accident as my new birth and since then I always celebrate it with my friends,” he adds.

At the time of his days in the Indian Spinal Injury Centre he came across an American guy, who introduced him to wheelchair rugby. Later on Saroha formed the Indian team and played a demo match against Brazil in World Para-Games in Banglore in 2009. “In Bangalore I came to know about para-sports and with the six months of training in shot put I made it to the national squad. After that as we say rest is the history,” says Saroha, who also had a Para-Asian Games gold to his credit.