Mariyappan Thangavelu, born on 28 June 1995, is an Indian Paralympic high jumper and a triple Paralympic medallist. He won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, the silver at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. He is also a double medallist at the World Championships, with one gold and one bronze, and an Asian Para Games silver medallist.
He was born in Periavadagampatti village in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu, one of six children, with four brothers and a sister. His father reportedly left the family early, and his mother, Saroja, raised the children alone, working as a brick-carrying labourer and then as a vegetable seller earning Rs 100 a day. At five he suffered permanent disability in his right leg when he was run over by a drunk bus driver on his way to school; the bus crushed his leg below the knee. He completed secondary school and says he did not see himself as different from other children.
He liked volleyball as a student, and his school physical education teacher encouraged him to try the high jump. In his first competitive event, at 14, he placed second against able-bodied competitors, which brought encouragement from classmates and others in Salem. In 2013 his present coach, Satyanarayana, supported by the Sports Academy of India for the Differently-Abled, first noticed him at the national para-athletics championships, and in 2015 took him on formally and brought him to Bengaluru for coaching.
In March 2016 he cleared 1.78 metres in the men’s T42 high jump at the IPC Grand Prix in Tunisia, which qualified him for the Rio Paralympics. In Rio he won the T42 gold medal with a jump of 1.89 metres. In November 2019 he cleared 1.80 metres in the T63 high jump at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai to win bronze behind fellow Indian Sharad Kumar, and in August 2021 he won the silver medal in the men’s T63 high jump at the Tokyo Paralympics, his second Paralympic medal. In October 2018 he was named India’s flag bearer for the Asian Para Games in Jakarta, and in December of that year he was offered a Group A post as a coach with the Sports Authority of India.
He received the Padma Shri in 2017, the Arjuna Award in 2017 with a cash award of Rs 5 lakh, and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2020, the highest sporting honour of India. His cash awards included Rs 2 crore from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Rs 75 lakh from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Rs 50 lakh from the Government of Madhya Pradesh, Rs 30 lakh from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Rs 15 lakh from a fund established by Sachin Tendulkar, along with smaller sums from Yash Raj Films, the Delhi Golf Club and an NRI businessman.
He has an elder sister, Sudha, and two younger brothers, Kumar and Gopi, and in 2015 completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration. After the Rio win he used part of his prize money to buy his mother a paddy field and build a better house for his family. In August 2017 he said it felt good to be recognised and to have neighbours treat him with great respect, but that he felt “a slight sadness” that even his friends now treated him with greater formality. He said he remained committed to athletics but needed a steady job to support his family. His Paris bronze in 2024 completed a set of Paralympic medals across three Games.
Featured image: Mariyappan Thangavelu receiving a cash award from Sports Minister Vijay Goel in New Delhi, October 2016 (file photo). Photo by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
