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Harvinder Singh’s calm composure and precision turned dreams into reality as he became India’s first-ever Paralympic gold medalist in archery on Wednesday.
Reserving his best for the final, Harvinder nailed three 10s in his last four arrows to knock out his 44-year-old opponent from Poland Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 (28-24, 28-27, 29-25) for India's second medal in archery at the ongoing Paralympics.
Pursuing PhD in Economics, the 33-year-old Indian, who lost to Kevin Mather of the USA in the Tokyo semifinals before securing a bronze, showed neither fatigue not nerves to secure five back-to-back wins in a day to bag his second successive Paralympics medal.
Hailing from a family of farmers from Ajit Nagar in Haryana, Harvinder faced significant adversity early in life.
When he was just one and a half years old, he contracted dengue and due to the side effects of some injections administered to him, both his legs were left impaired.
Despite this early challenge, he found a passion for archery after getting inspiration from 2012 London Paralympics. He made his debut at the 2017 Para Archery World Championship, finishing seventh.
A gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games followed, and during the COVID-19 lockdown, his father turned their farm into an archery range to support his training.
Harvinder made history by winning India's first ever archery medal -- a bronze -- at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.
