The two young athletes, Thangavelu Mariyappan and Varun Singh Bhati, deserve rich praise for scripting history by clinching gold and bronze medals at the ongoing Paralympic Games at Rio de Janeiro (“ >Twin delight as Indians strike gold , bronze at Paralympics”, Sept.11). The medal winners need more assistance and encouragement from the authorities concerned.
Prem K. Menon,
Mumbai
It is unfortunate that economic difficulties come in the way of nurturing one’s talent, as the example of Mariyappan shows. One hopes that the district administrations in each State go about identifying talent. As one of the medal winners has said, had they got support early enough, they could have gone higher in their feats.
N. Mahadevan,
Chennai
It is R. Rajendran, Mariyappan’s physical education teacher at school, who deserves praise for spotting the athlete’s talent early enough and asking him to switch over to athletics and high jump from volleyball. To me, this is what is called providential grace.
S. Ramakrishnasayee,
Ranipet, Tamil Nadu
No words of appreciation will be enough to describe the enormous and unstinted fighting spirit the two special athletes displayed. Now that they have proved that they can win medals, the Central and State governments should provide them unstinted support as well as to sports institutions and coaches to seek out and nurture hidden talent.
J.S.V.S.K.N. Prasad,
Mangaluru
In the Paralympics, the focus of the event is on ability, and not disability. The event is a great transformational tool to change attitudes towards people with disabilities and shows that they too are an integral part of society. But why was media coverage of the event minimal?
Devendra Singh Budania,
Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan
