Paris 2024 Paralympics | They will give us chills: Avani Lekhara

In Tokyo, Avani Lekhara became the first and only Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. She was not yet 20.

It was in the SH1 standing 10m air rifle event. With a total of 249.6 points, she broke the Paralympic record for the discipline, and equalled the world record. Three days later, also in Tokyo, she won bronze in the 50m 3-position rifle SH1 event. She thus became the first Indian female athlete to win several medals at a single Paralympic Games.

Paraplegic after an accident

Avani was born on 8 November 2001 in Jaipur, Rajasthan. In 2012, at the age of 11, she was involved in a car accident that left her paraplegic and condemned her to a wheelchair for life.

It was her father who convinced her that sport could help her give meaning to her life. First she took up archery, but soon switched to rifle shooting. Shooting quickly became a passion. It has to be said that the girl is gifted... extremely gifted, in fact!

A legend of Indian sport as a fencing master

Abhinav Bindra is quite simply the first Indian ever to win gold in an individual event at the Olympic Games, having done so in Beijing just a few years earlier, in 2008. His speciality: 10m air rifle shooting, of course! With such a master of arms, her progress has been spectacular and meteoric. She took part in her first national championships in 2015, and began to collect titles and medals, both in India and abroad, until her crowning achievement in Tokyo.

Three years later, she will be aiming for another title, at least, at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.