Arunima Sinha, the country’s first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest in May, said that it was the false accusations levelled against her in connection with the train fall she suffered in 2011 that ignited her zeal to scale great heights.
Talking to journalists on the sidelines of a private school function here on Tuesday, the 26-year-old said: “The accusations created the fire in me. They made me strong, resolute and determined towards my goal. I wanted to prove to the world that I am a true sportsperson and I have done that today.”
Ms. Arunima lost her left lower limb after the train fall between Lucknow and Delhi. Though she claimed that a gang had pushed her out when she resisted its attempt to rob her, the police suspected that it was either a case of suicide or an attempt to evade punishment for ticketless travel.
Asked about the stage of the police case, she said: “I don’t know that. Ever since I lost my limb and started walking with a prosthetic leg, I had been working only on my goal of conquering the 29,000 feet summit. Now that it has been achieved, my next goal is the Seven Summits.”
Seven Summits is a term used to describe the highest mountains in the seven continents of the world and scaling all of them is considered to be a challenging feat by mountaineers. She was in the city to interact, shake hands and pose for photographs with students of Velammal group of schools.
