'I Wanted To Get Back Into Some Kind of Sport': Anjali Shinde On Her Journey From Gymnast To Para-Archery Gold

How you recover from the challenges that life throws at you truly defines you. Anjali Shinde is a fighter who has literally changed the way we look at the physically challenged in sports. This award-winning gymnast from Mumbai is also a Rope Malkambh winner at local and national levels. She met with an unfortunate accident 12 where she fell from the uneven parallel bars while practising gymnastics. Though paralysed from waist downwards, she did not let the injury keep her down. At 45, she picked up archery and won a Gold in the 50+50 Meter Compound Round (Women – W1 category) in the National Para-Archery Championship in Rohtak, India, 2019. She has inspired many.

Anjali speaks to The Free Press Journal of her astonishing journey into sports and the possibility of a film on her life.

Excerpts from the interview

Do tell us a bit about yourself.

I have three older sisters. My dad was a deep-sea diver in the Indian Navy. My mom is a homemaker. It was inter-caste marriage — dad Maratha, and mom Parsi.

You had life full of challenges.

I lived at Shivaji Park near Shree Samarth Vyayam Mandir. I started going there with my elder sisters and fell in love with gymnastics and the Rope Mallakhamb. And I excelled. However, an accident in 1985 left me disabled. We stayed on the third floor of a building without a lift. Therefore, I was mostly stuck at home and couldn’t finish school.

Then?

We moved to Pune to make life easier for me in 2016. Till then it was an emotional and physical struggle. Which to a certain extent still is. Since it’s a spinal cord injury, the damage is irreversible. And that is where it gets harder. It takes a toll on my health.

I tried my hand at a lot of things before settling down for archery. Whenever I visited my sister in New Zealand, I saw physically challenged people doing a lot of things including horse riding. I learnt that and was good too. The lady who taught me even requested to settle there and represent her country for the sport. I used to swim there as well. As my arms were strong, I could swim with help of a float.

How did archery happen?

When I moved to Pune, I met a friend who mentioned there is a guy who does archery and needs someone to play mixed doubles with him. I said I’d like to check it out because I wanted to get back into some kind of sport. But I never knew how. When I got this opportunity, coach Ranjeet Chamle boosted me. Surprisingly, I was quite good. He said I should really take this up seriously. I was quite excited about it.

What about competitions?

Within a month, a national competition was coming up, and my coach told me I had to participate. I was a last-minute entry and, as it turns out, the only woman in India with my level of injury competing in the W1 category. I went to the nationals in Rohtak and did well for someone who had practiced only for a month. I used someone else’s equipment. Still, I managed to get a good score and won the gold.

I then got selected for the camp and went to Rohtak for the camp. You would have thought that there were better facilities there. It was quite disappointing. Even to get to the practice range, you had to do a cross-country kind of thing. My sister was with me because the camp was for a month, and somebody had to stay with me. She had to propel me because it is so rugged and carry the equipment as well.

Archery is an expensive sport...

You are right. And we didn’t have any fixed income coming our way after my dad’s death in 2006. Now, it’s just my mom and me staying together. I tried doing odd jobs. I used to make handmade cards for Diwali for my brother-in-law, and Christmas cards for my physiotherapist, who is now settled in the US. I did this till prior to COVID. I used to do data entry jobs for my friends. Manjiri Marathe, who is like a sister., she and her husband had started a computer startup. They helped a lot.

There's now a film being made on your life, if I’m not wrong.

I don’t think we actually want to talk about it at this stage.

Hypothetically, if there is a film being made, how do you see the film changing the way people look at you?

Honestly, I don’t think I have much of a story to tell. I don’t know what people can take from my life, but my family, my niece, and my nephew say I am quite an inspiration. You don’t know that because it is a part of your life. But for us, too, we think that you do stuff that we wouldn’t even think of doing, is what they say. If anyone in a similar situation takes inspiration from my story or if it makes a difference in their thought process, then it’s all being worth it.

Whenever I used to visit the doctors, they used to be impressed. They used to say that I should talk to patients because they have seen patients going into depression so much. And I am miles away. People are amazed whenever they see me sitting in a wheelchair. You wouldn’t know anything is wrong with me. And people blatantly stare. I think that is because they think I look absolutely normal and wonder what is wrong.

What do you want people to take from what you have gone through to be who you are right now?

Acceptance. The earlier the acceptance, the easier the life. This would go for even a normal person. I am physically challenged in a certain way. You are challenged in your own way. You are fighting your battles on a different level. I am fighting mine. It’s a matter of perspective.  

You spoke about the struggles in terms of playing sports, facilities, and moving. What are the things that you want to change in this regard?

I would like more awareness on both sides. For the physically challenged, we need to know all reservations and schemes we’ve got. If that is sorted now, it will be like a milestone for the physically challenged. If the difficulties we have to face with architectural barriers, commuting as in local transport are addressed, it will be like a milestone for the physically challenged. If you actually think of it, the physically challenged and senior citizens are not taken into consideration at all for roads, etc. I would say it’s even difficult for you guys to walk on a footpath. Think how hard it is for us. For example, there is an elevator in the building, but there are a few steps to get to it. It negates the whole point of having a lift. These are little things people don’t even realise. Secondly, people should stop staring and help simply if needed.

Published on: Sunday, September 28, 2025, 07:45 AM IST