Mariyappan Thangavelu, India's gold medal winner at the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games, was only five years old when his right knee was crushed in a bus accident. His journey from that day, which left him permanently disabled, to becoming only third Indian to win gold at the Paralympics, has been nothing short of incredible and inspiring.

Mariyappan Thangavelu had his knee crushed at the age of five and when his father abandoned the family, his mother Saroja and he had to really struggle for their living. Saroja, who sold vegetables, could earn not more an Rs 75 to Rs 100 a day. But she ensured Mariyappan's initial love towards sports turned to something special and Mariyappan owes the same to his mother what he owes to his coach. Following Mariyappan's medal winning performance his mother celebrated with the entire village by bursting crackers.

THE DISCRIMINATION

The Central government of India had announced Rs 75 lakh to be presented to Mariyappan where the same Central government presented nearly thrice that to P V Sindhu who had won silver at the Rio Olympics. So here comes the discrimination. Nobody knows why and one shouldn't go deep into that.

KNOWING HOW TO WIN

Winning is not new to Mariyappan. In his first competitive event against able-bodied athletes aged 14, he emerged second. Satyanarayana, his coach, was quick to spot him at the National's when he was 18 in 2013

THE SAD PART

Even though Thangavelu, who has increased India's position in medal tally to get into top 30, the sad part is that his family continues to be involved in a legal tussle with the state-owned transport corporation.

There are stories behind everyone participating in Paralympics and this is something to get inspired from.....