The inspirational Rio Paralympics Silver medallist and Padma Shri Awardee Deepa Malik was the chief guest at the International Institute of Sports Management (IISM) annual convocation ceremony held at Mumbai Cricket Association Recreation Centre, BKC on Monday. Namdev Shirgaonkar, Jt Secretary, Indian Olympic Association, Nilesh Kulkarni, Ex Cricketer and Founder/Director, IISM, Amit Gupte, COO, IISM and Amitava Pal, Asst Dean, IISM were also present at the occasion.
Deepa Malik lauded the work IISM is doing for promoting sport in the country and teaching inclusiveness by inviting a para-athlete as a guest of honour. Speaking to the young students present on the occasion 48-year-old Deepa Malik said, “It is an emotional moment for me speaking to the future generation of the sports fraternity. After being paralysed from the waist down and attending hydrotherapy I took up swimming as a sport and never looked back.” When asked about what drove her to success she added, “I am sitting here as an achiever because I was determined to improve the quality of my life and sport helped me become the best version of myself. I have been able to sustain my achievements because of my ability to adapt to change,” she further added.
After her win in Rio, Deepa had to face a lot of challenges mainly due to lack of inclusiveness in the sport. Deepa, who had been competing in the F-53 category in Javelin throw and Short Put suddenly found herself without a sport when both events were removed from her category. Deepa then went to great lengths to master the Discus Throw, where she won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games, but the sport took a toll on her, resulting in frequent injuries because of which she has decided to opt-out of the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020.
Even after bringing laurels to her country, she feels India has a long way to go in terms of Inclusiveness of para-athletes and development of Sports Science and Infrastructure and she wishes to go back to her swimming roots and create a record for open sea swimming in the near future.