By It was a sunny day in 2012. In Jaipur, Rajasthan, a vibrant 11-year-old girl, Avani Lekhara, was driving to her school with her father. Just like every other day, Avani was excited about her day at the school. Little did she know that her life was about to take a U-turn. While on their way to her school, Avani and her father met with an accident. The car veered off the road, which resulted in a horrific accident, leaving Avani with severe spinal cord injuries. The spinal injuries left her paraplegic, a condition that left her lower body paralysed.
For an 11-year-old, this seemed like the walls were caving in, and the world was coming to an end. After the accident, she found herself in deep despair and struggled to come to terms with her new reality. However, her family, particularly her father, stood by her side and urged her to find new ways to channel her energy and ambitions. They started having conversations about different sports Avani could pursue. Sports like archery, swimming, badminton and shooting were put to the table. Avani recalls the time, saying, “I was in class nine, and it was our summer vacation. I tried out a number of sports, like archery and swimming. The Jagatpura shooting range is close to where I live in Jaipur, so it was the easiest option to pick.” So, with the help of her father and the autobiography of Indian Shooting star Abhinav Bindra, Avani took shooting as her preferred sport in 2015.
The Takeoff
Starting in 2015, Avani started training in 10m Air Rifle shooting and quickly, what started as a means to cope with the circumstances became a passion and a love for the shooting prodigy. Under the guidance of her coach, Suma Shirur, a former Olympian, Avani started progressing in her career. Avani kept on honing her skills, and after two years, she had already started making waves in the national shooting scene. During her time in the shooting range, Avani said, “The first time I went to the range, I got 10–20 shots in the black circle. The coach there then suggested I try the sport full-time. As I progressed from one tier of competition to the next, I started loving the sport. Shooting made me feel confident and happy. That range was like home. I felt like I belonged there.”
However, she also said that shooting training wasn’t easy for her, mainly because she had to rest a 5—or 6-kg air rifle for hours on end. She said, “I am paraplegic. I don’t have sensation, motor power, or balance from the waist down. It does get hard trying to position a 5- to 6-kilogram rifle on the body for up to three and a half hours.”
She also mentioned how her paraplegic condition made it extremely hard for her to train. Mainly because her trainers had to come up with a new approach to training because of her condition. Avani said, “It takes a lot of physical strengthening for the upper body. You need to do a lot of cardio because in shooting, we shoot in between breaths, and that needs control. Usually, people run or do treadmill work. But in my case, I can’t do any of that, so it took a lot of time to customise a workout for me. After you reach a certain level, 70–80 per cent of the task is purely a thing of the mind. So, I do a lot of yoga, pranayam, and meditation with my trainer.”
The Time to Test Her Mettel
After winning several national medals, it was time for Avani to prove her mettle as a shooter in the most prestigious sporting event in the world, the Paralympics. The 2020 Tokyo Paralympics was a historic moment for India and marked a turning point in the country’s sporting history. For Avani, it was nothing short of extraordinary. On 30 August 2021, Avani etched her name in the history books and became the first ever Indian woman to win a gold in Paralympic shooting. She competed in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 and scored a total of 249.6, equalling a world record and setting a new Paralympic record in the process.
A Gold Medal in the Paralympics would have satisfied 99% of the people in the world, but not Avani. She went on to win another medal, this time bronze, in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 position SH1. This made her the first Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals. She proved to millions of people and herself that anything is possible with determination and a relentless pursuit of excellence.
The Peak
She won India its maiden gold medal in the Women’s Paralympics and brought a lot of attention to the Paralympics in India, a field that is often overshadowed by other popular sports like Cricket. For this reason, she has been honoured with numerous awards and achievements. She was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award in 2021, India’s highest sporting honour and she also received Padma Shri in 2022, one of India’s highest civilian honours.
With the 2024 Paris Paralympics at the helm, Avani Lekhara is training rigorously to bring home the gold medal. She is focusing on refining her techniques and adapting to new challenges that she may have to face at the highest level.
