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His left leg being shorter and weaker than his right because of a congenital impairment didn’t deter a young Praveen Kumar from doing what he loved the most as a child, cycling with his friends. He would cycle 14 kilometres daily to reach school — from his village Gobindgarh to Jewar.
“Never did he complain about any physical discomfort because of cycling,” Praveen’s father Amarpal,a tube well operator, told The Indian Express. And he hardly complained otherwise too.
On the day Parveen won gold in the men’s high jump T64, an upgrade of the silver he won in Tokyo three years ago, Amarpal was overjoyed. His best jump of 2.08 metres was an Asia record and his personal best too.
Praveen Kumar clinches gold 🥇 at #Paris2024 with his season’s best jump of 2.08 m 🤯
Watch the #Paralympics LIVE on #JioCinema 👈#ParalympicsOnJioCinema #JioCinemaSports #ParalympicsParis2024 #HighJump pic.twitter.com/k6zLWLU9XD
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) September 6, 2024
“To see him winning the gold after the silver medal in Tokyo Paralympics is special for Praveen as well all of us, including his brother Sachin and sister Priya, who have always supported his dream of winning medals for India,” Amarpal added.
“When he was born with the leg impairment, we raised him like any other child. That helped him have a positive attitude all his life,” Amarpal added.
Praveen started off with volleyball at the Pragyan Public School, Jewar, before a chance meeting with Dronacharya awardee coach Dr Satya Pal Singh during a district-level competition got him interested in high jump.
“The thing which impressed me in Parveen was the strength in his right leg. He used to cycle a lot in his childhood and it helped him develop the muscles in his right leg. He started with the straddle technique in high jump before slowly developing the Fosbury Flop technique,” coach Satya Pal said.
Despite being just five foot and five inches tall, Praveen soared over 1.70 metres just a couple of years after getting formal coaching.
“The key in Fosbury Flop is to have strength in the back as one falls after clearing the bar. So we had to work on strengthening his back. From gym work to sprints, we did specific training for developing his back to master the technique. The strength in his right leg helped to give the explosive push,” Singh said.
In 2019 Praveen travelled to Switzerland for International Paralympic Committee (IPC) classification. The IPC officials classified him in the T64 category. “When we went to classification, Praveen was classified in T64, where athletes having much less impairment than him competed. He was depressed for days. But then I made him understand that whatever the category be, we will prepare hard and give our best,” Satya Pal added.
In 2019, Parveen won the silver medal in the World Junior Para Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland apart from a gold medal in Para World Grand Prix in Fazza the same year. At the Tokyo Paralympics, Parveen made a best jump of 2.07m to finish behind Great Britain’s Jonathan Broom-Edwards. Last year, Praveen won the bronze medal in the World Para Championships and also emerged champion at the Para Asian Games.
Earlier this year, Praveen suffered a setback when a shot put landed on his foot during training. He was sidelined for more than a month.
Praveen would also spend time talking with fellow UP athletes like sprinter Preeti Pal and shuttler Suhas Yathiraj to keep himself motivated. “All the seven other para athletes from Uttar Pradesh who were set to compete in the Paris Paralympics kept in touch with Praveen and it helped him focus on recovery,” Kavinder Chaudhary, president of the UP Para Sports Association, said.
As for his parents, they know how Praveen will celebrate the medal when he gets back. “He will cycle with his friends. That’s one thing which he has always loved,” Amritpal said.
