Chennai, Mariyappan Thangavelu has gone from being just another rural athlete/ youth to a celebrity in the space of a few days. The gold medal in the Rio Paralympics changed life for the son of a vegetable vendor and he has been a busy person since. However, he has not changed as a person and continues to be a modest youth, who has found himself in the spotlight all of a sudden thanks to his exploits in Brazil.
Apart from a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the capital, Thangavelu has been bestowed with honours and has been attending felicitation functions. He was here this morning to participate in an event in his honour.
The shy high jumper was in the company of coach Sathyanarayana and presented prizes to Velammal students who had excelled in various sports. He fielded questions from the student fraternity and told them that there was no substitute to hard work.
Asked who motivated him to take up athletics (read high jump), Thangavelu saisd it was a pretty long list and included (his) mother, sister, college principal and professors. Recalling the rocky road to success, the Paralympic gold medalist said he was just another athlete before coach Sathyanarayana spotted him and took up the task of training him.
“He (Sathyanarayana) recognised my talent and came in search for me and spoke to my mother about training.”
The Salem-based athlete said initially there were apprehensions about how well he could do but as time passed there was a sense of confidence.
“At Rio, I was initially afraid but adapted quickly and the desire to win a medal for the country helped me win a gold. It was my coach who took me to Bengaluru to provide the best training facilities.”
He had a piece of advice for the students: “You can shine in any field and achieve greatness if you put your heart into it.”
Mariyappan was born in Periavadagampatti village, Salem district, Tamil Nadu, one of five children (four brothers and a sister). His father reportedly abandoned the family early on, and his mother, Saroja, raised her children as a single mother, carrying bricks as a laborer until becoming a vegetable seller, earning ₹100 (US$1.50) a day.At the age of five, Mariyappan suffered permanent disability in his right leg when he was run over by a drunk bus driver while walking to school; the bus crushed his leg below the knee, causing it to become stunted.Despite this setback, he completed secondary school; he says he “didn’t see myself as different from able-bodied kids.”
Mariyappan enjoyed playing volleyball as a student; subsequently, his school P.E. instructor encouraged him to try high jumping. In his first competitive event, aged 14, he placed second amongst a field of able-bodied competitors, after which he received strong encouragement from his classmates and others in Salem district. In 2013, his current coach, Satyanarayana, first noticed his performance at the Indian national para-athletics championships, and formally took him on as a student in 2015, bringing him to Bengaluru for further coaching.
In March 2016, Mariyappan cleared a distance of 1.78m in the men’s high jump T42 event at the IPC Grand Prix in Tunisia, qualifying him for the Rio Paralympics. At the Rio Paralympics, he won the gold medal in the men’s high jump T42 finals, with a leap of 1.89 m.
Mariyappan received 2Crore prize money from Tamil Nadu government. He donated 30lakhs to the Government school he studied, to improve facilities.
In 2015, Mariyappan completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration from AVS College of Arts and Science. He plans to complete an MBA from the same institution.
He has an elder sister, Sudha, and two younger brothers, Kumar and Gopi.
