Deepa Malik: India can win double-digit Paralympics medals

The faith in the athletes that the president of the Paralympic Committee of India has put in will surely boost their confidence.

One of India's finest athlete in Paralympics, Deepa Malik, believes that India's performance at the Tokyo Games will be an exceptional one and we can secure double-digit medals from the upcoming Paralympics.

"At Rio, we had doubled the medals, we were a squad of 19. we had two golds, a silver, and a bronze. In 2018 (Asian Para Games) we were a squad of 194 and won 72 medals. It has already set the benchmark," told India's first women paralympic medallist in a conversation with paddler Mudit Dani in his chat show called "In the Spotlight."

"The sensational thing about Tokyo next year will be India bagging Paralympics medals in double digits," the shot-putter added who had claimed silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The 49-year-old Malik, who has won silver in the IPC World Championships, has never in her career allowed her disability to get the better of herself or even come in the way of her passion.

She takes inspiration from the injured soldiers of the Kargil War when in 1999 she was aware that she needed to undergo a surgery to remove a spinal tumour.

"The hospital to which I was taken for my surgery was full of war casualties. I think that immediately became my inspiration. If these healthy young men were losing a limb in their line of duty, then I have no reason to crib just because I have a disease," she recollected.

Malik is hopeful that India will do well at the Tokyo Games next year and she will stay true to her statement of getting the medals to double digits. The 49-year old clinched silver at Rio in 2016 with a distance of 4.61m. She was recently elected for the position of president of the Paralympic Committee of India.

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