Devendra Jhajharia, born on 10 June 1981 in Churu, Rajasthan, is an Indian Paralympic javelin thrower and the first Indian to win two gold medals at the Paralympics. He won the javelin throw at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and again at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and added a silver in Tokyo, which made him India’s most decorated Paralympian. In 2024 he was elected president of the Paralympic Committee of India.
He comes from a Jat family in Sadulpur, Churu, and was brought up by Jevani Devi and Ram Singh Jhajharia. When he was eight years old, he climbed a tree and touched a live electric cable. He received medical attention, but doctors had to amputate his left hand. In 1997 the Dronacharya awardee coach R. D. Singh spotted him competing at a school sports day, and from then on Singh coached him. Jhajharia has given credit to his coach for the 2004 gold, and since 2015 he has been coached by Sunil Tanwar. He is supported by Olympic Gold Quest.
His first major title was the gold medal at the 8th FESPIC Games in South Korea in 2002. In 2004 he qualified for his first Paralympics, in Athens, where he set a world record of 62.15 metres, beating the old mark of 59.77 metres, and won gold. He became only the second Paralympic gold medallist for India, after Murlikant Petkar. In 2013 he won the F46 javelin gold at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon and in 2014 a silver at the Asian Para Games in Incheon. At the 2015 World Championships in Doha he threw 59.06 metres and took silver behind China’s Guo Chunliang, who set a championship record.
In 2016 he won gold at the IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championship in Dubai, and at the Rio Paralympics he won the men’s F46 javelin gold with a world-record throw of 63.97 metres, improving on his own Athens record. At the Tokyo Paralympics in August 2021, he won silver in the F46 javelin with a personal best of 64.35 metres, while Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Priyan Herath won gold with a world record of 67.79 metres and India’s Sundar Singh Gurjar took bronze. The silver was his third Paralympic medal.
His honours include the Arjuna Award in 2004, the Padma Shri in 2012, the first given to a Paralympian, the FICCI Para-Sportsperson of the Year award in 2014, and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2017. In 2022 he received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, becoming the first para-athlete to do so.
Jhajharia is a former Indian Railways employee and now works with the Rajasthan Forest Department. His wife, Manju, is a former nationally ranked kabaddi player, and they have two children, Jiya and Kavyan. In March 2024 he was announced as the BJP candidate from Churu in the general election, which he did not win, and on 9 March 2024 he became president of the Paralympic Committee of India, succeeding Deepa Malik.
For para-sport in India, his story, from a childhood accident in a Rajasthan village to world records in Athens and Rio, has been a reference point for younger athletes, and his three Paralympic medals over 17 years show a rare longevity.
Featured image: Devendra Jhajharia at a ceremony in New Delhi on 24 October 2016 where Rio medal winners received cash awards (file photo). Photo by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
