Nearly a month has passed since T. Mariyappan bagged a historic gold in the men’s high jump (T-42) at the Paralympic Games in Rio.
The celebrations, though, haven’t subsided for the 21-year-old hailing from Periavadagampatti, a small village in Salem district.
He has just shot for Comedy Nights with Kapil in Mumbai for Sony TV and Vijay TV’s Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi in Chennai.
Felicitations will continue for another fortnight as he travels to Hyderabad and New Delhi, among other places, before resuming training in Bengaluru.
“I haven’t slept properly since winning the gold as the phone keeps ringing. There were times when I was overwhelmed,” Mariyappan told The Hindu here on Saturday after being felicitated by Velammal Vidyalaya School (Mel Ayanambakkam).
When asked how he was going to manage the cash awards that have poured in, Mariyappan said his priority was to “take care of my mother well”. He said he is still residing in a rented house and will soon build a new one.
Mariyappan put a rest to the question about who should be credited with his success at the international level. “Satyanarayana is my coach and everyone knows about it.”
According to Satyanarayana, this was the first time that three Indians in the top three of the world rankings — Mariyappan, Varun Singh Bhati and Sharad Kumar — took part in the high jump.
“In no other event at Rio did it happen,” he said.
Answering questions from students, Mariyappan said though he won medals at the national-level earlier, it was only during his second year in AVS College (Ramalingapuram, Salem) in 2014-15 that he was noticed.
“In my second year, Satyanarayana saw my talent, spoke to my family, college staff and spent his own money for training and tournaments abroad. I also want to thank the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu for their help,” he said.
Mariyappan said he will now focus on the 2017 World championship at London (July 14 to 23) and the 2018 Asian Para Games at Jakarta (October 8 to 16).
