Rio gold medalist from Tamil Nadu, Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu, to get Arjuna award

Tamil Nadu’s Mariyappan Thangavelu is among 17 sportspersons who will be getting the prestigious Arjuna Awards this year. 

The decision was arrived at a meeting of the Arjuna Awards committee which met in New Delhi on Thursday, August 3.

Thangavelu, 22, scripted history last year by winning the gold medal in the men’s high jump T-42 event at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. He registered a jump of 1.89 meters. 

The Tamil Nadu athlete is India's first Paralympian gold medallist since the Athens Games in 2004. 

Thangavelu hails from Periyavadagampatti, a village located 50 km from Salem in western Tamil Nadu. Then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a reward of Rs. 2 crores. 

Mariyappan had met with an accident at the age of five when he was on the way to school. A bus had run over his right leg, crushing it below the knee, leaving him with a permanent disability. He was fond of playing volleyball.

However, on the suggestion of R. Rajendran, his physical education teacher at the Government Higher Secondary School at Periyavadagampatti, he switched over to athletics and high jump. He went on to win school-level high jump competitions and never looked back.

His father abandoned the family more than a decade ago. Since then his mother, Saroja, sells vegetables on a cycle and works as a casual labourer.

Mariyappan was trained for the Rio games by his coach Satyaranayana of Bangalore. 

He will be conferred the award along with cricketers Harmanpreet Kaur and Cheteshwar Pujara among others.