Paris Paralympics: Nishad Kumar always dreamt of serving in the army, now he makes country proud with back-to-back high jump silvers
As a young kid growing up in village Badaun near Amb in Himachal Pradesh, Nishad Kumar would often dream of joining the Indian Army. He would help his farmer father Rashpal Singh at the family’s half-acre farmland before the then eight-year-old lost a hand in a fodder-cutting machine in 2007.
On Sunday night, the 24-year-old Indian para-athlete won the silver medal in men’s high jump T47 final at Stade de France with a best jump of 2.04m, three years after his silver medal in Tokyo. USA’s Roderick Townsend clinched the gold medal.
Parents Rashpal and Pushpa Devi were watching the historic feat. “Like any village kid, Nishad liked flying kits as well as meeting Army soldiers on vacation while going to school. His first dream was to join the Indian Army. When the accident happened, he was not worrying about the pain but asking the doctors whether he could join the Army. The doctors didn’t want to disappoint him. His two medals in Paralympics are testament to his determination that he can serve India by winning medals and seeing the Tricolour fly high,” Rashpal told The Indian news.
Nishad Kumar’s parents Rashpal Singh and Pushpa Devi with sister Rama Devi at their home in Badaun in Himachal Pradesh. (news Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
With the village almost in the wild and near a seasonal rivulet near the state highway and most villagers growing maize and wheat, Kumar would watch his father do masonry. On that fateful day in August 2007, Kumar was helping his mother when his right hand got caught in the machine and the hand was cut to pieces.
But the boy, who was taller than kids of his age, would rejoin school within three months and it was at the Saraswati Vidya Mandir School at the nearby village of Katohur Khurd that Kumar was put into athletics by coach Ramesh in 2009.
“He would enjoy participating in 100m and 200m apart from high jump and would come home on his bicycle late at night post his training at the school. During the school meets, he always told the coach that he would compete with able-bodied kids as he felt himself to be their equal,” says elder sister Rama Kumari.
It was a silver medal in high jump at the sub-junior School National Games at Patiala that gave Kumar his first taste of national achievement. In 2017, he shifted base to Panchkula to train under coach Naseem Ahmad, who once coached future Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, and Vikram Chaudhary.
Nishad Kumar’s parents Rashpal Singh and Pushpa Devi with sister Rama Devi at their home in Badaun in Himachal Pradesh. (news Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
“Nishad’s biggest strength was his belief that he could compete in the general category from a young age and it helped him become a confident athlete. Our main challenge was to make him master the Fosbury Flop technique, where the jumper lands on the stomach. He grew up jumping in the scissors kick style which helped him improve his core strength and knee drive at a young age” says coach Chaudhary.
Kumar improved his personal best from 1.83m in 2017 to 2.0m at the World Para Championship in Dubai in 2019. In Tokyo, Kumar had a best jump of 2.06m and followed that with reaching his career-best mark of 2.14m at the Nationals Games, competing in the normal category and finishing fifth in 2022.
Last year, he won the silver medal with a best jump of 2.09m at the world para championships and set an Asian Para record with the same mark at the Hangzhou Asian Games to win the gold.
“He had trained for more than four months under coach Jeremy Fischer, coach of Olympic medallist Will Claye in the USA, prior to the Paris Games and last year too. To train with some of the world’s best at Chula Vista helped him a lot,” says coach Ahmad.
Sister Rama Devi, a year elder to Kumar, has set up the Asian Games gold medal and Tokyo Paralympics silver medal for display at their home and while she shows the pictures to the village ladies, she has one regret.
“While the Himachal Pradesh government gave him the cash award for the Tokyo Paralympics, Nishad is still without a job. His cash award for the Asian Para Games too has not been given yet by the state government,” says Devi.
