The upcoming international multi-sport athletics event – Paris 2024 Paralympic Games – is all set to commence from 28 August to 8 September 2024.

A record 84 Indian athletes are expected to participate in the Paris Paralympics. Among these para athletes is 20-year-old Palak Kohli, for whom a career in sports was once a distant dream.

Born with an underdeveloped left arm, Palak spent her childhood watching others play from the sidelines, never imagining she could be on the court herself.

As a teenage girl with a disability, she would often feel agitated by society’s perception of her.

Her teachers and peers advised her to focus on her studies and get a job through disability quotas. Often, she would burst into tears of helplessness.

But everything changed in 2017. That year, Palak met Gaurav Khanna, head national coach of India’s para badminton team, outside a mall in Punjab.

“I was always stopped from playing sports, and this stranger comes out of nowhere and tells me I can do wonders in sports! I found it hard to believe,” Palak tells The Better India.

Gaurav introduced her to para badminton, sparking a new hope. In 2018, she began training with determination. In 2020, Palak became the youngest athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympics at just 19 years old.

She also made history as the first Indian woman athlete to compete in the semifinals in Tokyo, finishing in 4th place.

“Badminton came into my life as a blessing. My definition of disability has changed. People who once discouraged me appreciate me now. I don’t want girls with disabilities to be termed as bechari (helpless),” she says.

In 2022, she underwent an emergency surgery to remove a bone tumour on her left ankle. The surgery made her left foot shrink to almost half the size of her right foot.

Braving this setback, she is now all set to compete at her match scheduled on 29 August, 2024, at 12 pm.