Gritty Mona targets sporting excellence in Paris

Jaipur: Training sessions for Mona Agarwal are anything but easy. It isn’t just the precision of the sport that consumes her energy, even making it to the academy for her sessions is a task that drains her out. Almost every day.‘It's disconcerting’ to see her climb the stairs to make it to the first floor of the academy where she practices rifle shooting. Dragging her body using her hands, almost scrambling up one step at a time. “There isn’t a lift at my academy. So it’s a difficult part. But you should watch her train. She is here at my academy for 7-8 hours every day and I must mention that she is diligent and always enthusiastic about whatever she is doing in life. Being a para athlete does not make her self-conscious. That’s amazing,” said Mona’s coach Yogesh Shekhawat.Stricken by polio when she was nine-month old, the 37-year-old wheelchair-bound athlete had a crack at shot put, discus throw, powerlifting and javelin, before finally settling for shooting in 2022. In quick time the para shooter from Sikar district of Rajasthan has made it to the Paris Paralympics where she will be seen taking the target in 10m air rifle standing SH1 event today.“She also travelled looking for para women interested in volleyball and created a national team. But she later realised that of all the games it’s shooting which will suit her body going forward,” shared the coach of Eklavya Sports Shooting Academy in Jaipur where Mona trains.Married to a national para basketball player in Jaipur, she is a mother of two. “She has a 5-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. I don’t think her children need to look anywhere else for inspiration if they ever need it in life,” stated Yogesh.It was a love marriage. Mona met Ravindra Chaudhary at an athletics meet in 2017. “We met at the SMS Stadium and it was her confidence that I was bowled over. I felt unlike other para athletes, including me, she was self-assured and ready to make the most of her life,” said Ravindra.Born in a conventional family, she was third born after two girls and was ‘disappointing’ for Mona’s parents who wanted a male child. It was her maternal grandmother who instilled confidence and motivated her to achieve bigger things in life.“Everyone there is quite positive now. And importantly, her in-laws are very supportive and that helps her to give so much time to training while everything else is taken care of by her mother-in-law and husband,” added the coach.Being involved in sports has earned the para rifle shooter a government job at the secretariat, but in the absence of any other financial support it’s ‘tough to manage’. “Financial struggle is there and shooting is an expensive sport. I also don’t have a proper job and a steady income so that is a big disadvantage. At the academy they have waived off her fee and Mona keeps trying at her level to get the sponsors. Things drastically changed when she qualified for the Paralympics and she had all the support of the Central government,” shared Ravindra, who is working with Rajasthan’s wheelchair basketball team in no official capacity.I am confident of her winning a medal for the country in Paris, says Mona’s husband as he hopes for a better life for her fiercely independent wife.