Harvinder Singh created history, and won gold in Archery, first Indian to do so
The number of medals of India in the Paris Paralympics 2024 has now increased to 22. Harvinder Singh has won the 22nd medal of the Games in Men's Recurve Archery. Harvinder Singh has aimed at the gold medal this time. This is his second medal in the Paralympics. Earlier, he had won the bronze medal in the 2020 Paralympics. This time his journey was quite memorable. He did something that no Indian archer could do before this.
Harvinder Singh became the first archery player in Indian history to reach the final of the Olympics or Paralympics. This time his performance was very strong. He defeated Poland's Lukas Ciszek 6-0 in the final match. With this, he became the first Indian to win a gold medal in archery. Earlier, to reach the final, Harvinder Singh defeated Iran's Mohammadreza Arab Ameri by a margin of 6-4 in the semi-finals. At the same time, in the round of 8, Harvinder Singh defeated Indonesia's Setiawan by 6-2.
Who is Archer Harvinder Singh?
Harvinder Singh was born on 25 February 1991 in Kaithal, Haryana. Harvinder came into the limelight when he won gold in the individual category in the 2018 Asian Para Games. He also managed to win a bronze in the 2022 Asian Para Games. At the same time, last time he also created history by winning a bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympics. This was the first Paralympic medal in archery for India. After this, in 2021, he received the Arjuna Award from the Government of India. This award is the second-highest sports award given by the Government of India. At the same time, in 2022, he was awarded the Bhim Award, which is the highest sports award given by the government of Haryana state.
Coming from a farmer family in Haryana, Harvinder had to face a lot of hardships in the early days of his life. When he was just one and a half years old, he had dengue and was given injections for treatment. However, due to the side effects of these injections, his legs lost their functionality. He developed a passion for archery after the 2012 London Paralympics and today he is making the country proud all over the world.
Paris Paralympics 2024 India's fourth gold
India now has a total of 4 gold medals in Paris Paralympics 2024. Shooter Avani Lekhara won the first gold medal for India in the Paris Paralympics 2024. She won gold in the 10m air rifle SH1. Para-badminton player Nitesh Kumar won the gold medal in Men's Singles Badminton SL3. At the same time, the third gold medal was won by Sumit Antil in javelin. Now Harvinder Singh has joined this list.