Deepa Malik: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award proves that para sports have arrived

Deepa Malik is only the second para-athlete to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour.
As names of the National Sports Awards recipients for this year were announced on Saturday, NCR-based para-athlete Deepa Malik had a bittersweet moment. She had been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour and an award for which she has been overlooked several times in the past.But Deepa could not share the happy news with her biggest supporter – her father – who died last year.
“I wish my dad had been here to see this,” says an emotional Deepa, speaking to us a few hours after the announcement. “He had waited a long time for me to get this honour and I would have loved to share this moment with him,” she adds.
The honour comes at the back of a hugely successful year for Deepa, in which she started competing in a new event (Discus Throw) and promptly won a gold at the Asian Para Games. Deepa is only the second para-athlete, after Devendra Jhajharia in 2017, to win the award. She sees the two wins as a victory for para sports. “I’m happy about the inclusive approach,” she says.
Deepa Malik
Deepa adds, “This is going to be a huge encouragement for every para sportsperson and all the women with disability. The message that goes out is that there is a fair, just system that treats all athletes equally. I’m grateful to Kiren Rijijuji, who has treated us with that parity. The celebration is more for the Paralympic movement and para-sports as a whole. There has been an assumption that para athletes represent only 5% of the country, but we never go with 5% of the flag, do we? When we win, the national flag, in its entirety, goes up. Somewhere, para sports have arrived. I am so happy I could contribute to this movement, which has given me practically everything in my life. I wouldn’t have been Deepa Malik if I wasn’t a member of the Paralympic movement.”
At 49, Deepa has become the oldest athlete ever to have won the prestigious award. More importantly, this was one of the last opportunities for her to win the award as her event does not feature in the Tokyo Paralympics next year. She says, “I’m glad it happened this year because this was a crucial year for me. My event is not there in the Olympics next year. I’m not announcing my retirement though in any way.” In the past, she has expressed disappointment at not having been selected for the honour, despite good performances. But now, she says, “If I had received it in 2017, considering my age, I might have probably retired, thinking it’s all done. But I’m glad the hunger was left in me so that I could give more medals and records to my country. Now, I am inspired to do even more.” Deepa’s co-recipient of the honour is wrestler Bajrang Punia and the athlete says she is happy for him, too. In fact, she has a connection with Bajrang, as she belongs to the same village from where comes Bajrang’s mentor and former Khel Ratna awardee Yogeshwar Dutt. She tells us, “I’m happy that Yogeshwar’s student has won the award because Yogeshwar and I hail from the same village. So, it’s a celebration time in our village.”