Tokyo Paralympics 2020: ‘Person first and disabled later’, Ekta Bhyan aims to bring social change through sports-Sports News , Firstpost

It all started in 2016 at Berlin for her and she says she has not looked behind since then. She has crossed one obstacle after another and now flies to Tokyo to throw the club as far as possible to clinch the gold. The Paralympics gold.

Ekta Bhyan, a club and discus thrower, will be fighting for a podium finish at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 in Women’s club throw F51.

The Hisar girl is World No 5 and started pursuing the sport at international level in 2016.

Club/discus throw came into her life as late as 11 years after she met with an accident in 2003 and injured her spinal cord which resulted in paralysis of her lower and upper body.

In 2014, she started playing sports to get physically fit before one of her interviews published in a newspaper reached Paralympian Amit Kumar Saroha who has done the country proud in the same sport in the past.

Saroha asked her to pursue club and discus throw and Ekta didn’t waste much time and jumped in.

“I was unaware that there can be a sport specially designed for quadriplegic persons. When one of my interviews was published in the newspaper, my coach Amit Soraha contacted me and then I got to know he also has the same disability as mine. He asked me if I wanted to give a chance, and I went for it. I won a medal in Berlin in 2016 and never looked back,” said Ekta.

A quadriplegic person is someone who has paralysis on all four limbs. In Ekta’s case, she has her two legs fully paralysed while the upper limbs are partially paralysed. Club throw is the only event designed for quadriplegic persons in Paralympics, says Ekta.

The last one-and-a-half years have been difficult for her. First, the talks of postponement of Games and then the preparation, to stay fit when it gets the green signal. Because of her disability, it was difficult for her to train outside. Being a quadriplegic person, she is among the group of people at high risk during the coronavirus pandemic. That forced her to stay at home and not avail any services from outside, not even a trainer at home.

So she brought all the training equipment home.

She explains, “I set up the gym, para bands and focussed mainly on my fitness strengthening exercises. I could not go to my ground for my throw sessions. But one thing was clear in my mind that whether Games are happening or not, I have to stick to my time table, training six days a week, taking care of my nutrition and mental health.”

In order to stay mentally healthy during the lockdown, Ekta took up many hobbies as well as rediscovering some. For instance, she cleaned the dust from her poetry notebook and started writing to get the boredom out of the way and also started painting.

“Alongside training I started pursuing some hobbies. I started painting and writing poetry. That helped a lot although it was a very challenging time. Especially in 2021, the month of April and May.”

During this period of no sports, no competitions and no personal training, she relied on the video notes from her coach. The focus was not to just maintain the fitness levels but also to improve. She could not go to Sports Authority of India (SAI) to train in person because it was too risky for her life so the next best plan was to train alone at home and send the videos to Saroha for a review.

“I could not get any help from any trainer and gym was not safe option to get any help from a trainer who was coming from outside. My family only assisted me in keeping me fit for the Games.”

“Though I was in touch with him (Saroha) online, still there is a difference in training in person and training through digital mediums. I was sending him videos and he was telling me you have to improve this and that,” said Ekta.

The last international event that she took part in was in Dubai at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championship. Since then, there have been no events possible due to the pandemic. It was only in March 2021 that she could gauge her improvement at the national para athletic championship in Bengaluru.

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Training is not one of the most fun things to do for a para athlete and certainly not for Ekta for whom training during the pandemic without support of a professional was challenging.

Deepti Bopaiah of GoSports, who supported Ekta and other para athletes in becoming better athletes, tells Firstpost on how difficult it is for Ekta to do what she does.

“A  lot of people think that you are holding it (the club) and throwing it right? For para athletes, given all the other challenges that are there, even to just throw it, because of strength and stability, a lot of other things coming in, they work extra hard to get their balance right and the glue also has to sit right on that particular day to throw and perform. So it is not just your external and internal environments but beyond that. It is really exciting when they are performing, because there are so many moving parts which they have to get under control. And then it is the external parts. So it is literally a movie in itself when you see them getting ready because there are almost 15-20 things and then they are ready to start.”

The word glue may excite many. How is a glue influencing how good you are in a sport?

Ekta uses glue on her throwing palm to grip it better because her upper limbs are partially paralysed making it difficult for her to grip the club. There are also special gloves that she got from the United Kingdom (UK) thanks to GoSports which help her grip better. Add to that, four belts that she uses to tie her in order to maintain balance while throwing.

That is why training alone, with the help of family members who are a huge support system but are not really professionals, is a tough task.

Ekta explains, “It is not just about my lower limbs that are paralysed, my upper limbs are also partially paralysed and that results in zero finger movement or grip. And same with wrists and triceps. The exercise schedule is really very challenging. My main game is club throw. To grip the club, I have to use the glue. I cannot grip the club so I need to use the glue and I make all the arrangements of belts. I tie 3 to 4 belts to keep my balance as I don’t have core muscles or abdomen muscle strength.”

So not only does she train with the club, the glue, belts, gloves etc are also important factors in her sport. Not to forget, glue is used to help grip the club but it does not really help her in throwing the club easily.

Ekta says, “We work on a technique. It is the speed and angle on which we have to give a jerk so that it is released at the right time and right angle.”

Laughing over the complications of her sport, she says, “Sometimes we hit ourselves, we end up hitting our heads only sometimes if not released on time. Sometimes I hit the person who is assisting me. The right timing and angle is very important. While I am doing my practice sessions, I keep people who are assisting at 20m distance from me.”

Playing with the glue stuck in your hands, it gets more and more difficult with the glue influenced by temperature, the humidity etc. It affects the speed work needed to release it at the right time. Ekta says that at times, using the glue leads to tearing of the skin and that means a break of 2 -3 days to recover from that.

At the Paralympics, due to the COVID protocols, Ekta like other athletes will be getting only one escort to help her out, ideally there are two. However, the support from GoSports has been a great help. They have been with her in this journey since 2016 and recently she was given a power wheelchair which will help her roam freely at the Games.

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Deepti says that Ekta stands out not only because she is so good at her sports but also because she has been quite outspoken on the disability issue.

Ekta’s answer to the question on what she does beyond sport reflects the same.

She says, “I am working as an employment officer with the Haryana government. I was into the job before the accident. We have a very good sports policy in Haryana that has put in able bodied and para athletes at par. So, there is a provision of getting the job. So many people ask me if I got the job after Asian Para Games medal, so I tell them no, I tell them no I have been in this job since 2011. Then people ask me why did you join the sport when you had a job, we guys join sports only to get the job.”

The answer also reflects how sport works differently for different people. While it is a way to earn livelihood for many, for others, like Ekta, it added a different dimension to her life.

“I think she is one of those people who has not just proved and got on top of the game in her sport but she has also fought many battles on the whole disability and accessibility standpoint,” said Deepti.

Ekta hopes there are better days for not just para athletes but all disabled people. GoSports did come to her help five years ago but not before the naysayers tried to bring her to a stop. There are still not many who support para athletes financially and don’t see people with disability be the bread winners of their families. Ekta wants people to see the person and not the disability.

“For the person with disability, we have a long way to go, this section of society is still lagging behind, in terms of literacy and education. And in sports too. There is still a lot of work that we need to do in terms of infrastructure or changing the negative attitudes of our society. Like every public place is not wheelchair accessible, people don’t have the mindset that they can pursue higher education or they can pursue the career of their interest or pursue a career in sports, we need a change of mindset.

“We are person with disabilities, we are person first and disabled later. When they see us, they see only our disability, so it is not only about our disability. It is about us, the person. Including them and giving a right opportunity is given, they can also excel,” she said.