Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (born 27 June 1964), known as P. T. Usha, is an Indian former sprinter and hurdler, a sports administrator and a member of Parliament. Called the Queen of Indian track and field and the Payyoli Express, she dominated Asian athletics in the 1980s and came within one-hundredth of a second of an Olympic medal. Since 2022 she has been President of the Indian Olympic Association, the first woman to hold the post.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha |
| Born | 27 June 1964, Koothali, Kozhikode district, Kerala |
| Age | 62 |
| Sport | Athletics (sprints and 400 metres hurdles) |
| Coach | O. M. Nambiar |
| Olympics | 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996 |
| Asian Games | 4 gold and 7 silver medals |
| Awards | Arjuna Award (1983), Padma Shri (1985) |
| Offices | President, Indian Olympic Association (since 2022); nominated member, Rajya Sabha (since 2022) |
| Spouse | V. Srinivasan (m. 1991) |
| Children | 1 |
Early Life
She was born at Koothali and grew up at nearby Payyoli, a village on the Malabar coast, in a family of modest means; her father sold cloth. She was a frail child, often ill, but at school she beat the district champion, a girl several years older, in a race.
In 1976 the Kerala government opened a sports school for girls at Kannur and she was selected. Her coach there, O. M. Nambiar, trained her for the whole of her career.
Career
Early success
At the national school games and inter-state meets she won everything she entered. In 1980, at sixteen, she ran at the Moscow Olympics, the youngest Indian sprinter to do so. At the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982 she won silver medals in the 100 and 200 metres.
Los Angeles, 1984
Nambiar moved her to the 400 metres hurdles, an event new to the women’s Olympic programme, which she had run only a handful of times. At the Los Angeles Olympics she won her semi-final. In the final, after a false start by another runner unsettled the field, she finished fourth in 55.42 seconds, one-hundredth of a second behind the bronze medallist. The photograph of the finish is among the best-known images in Indian sport. No Indian woman had reached an Olympic athletics final before.
Queen of Asia
- **1985, Asian Championships, Jakarta:** five gold medals and a bronze, a record for a single championship
- **1986, Asian Games, Seoul:** four golds, in the 200 metres, 400 metres, 400 metres hurdles and 4×400 metres relay, and a silver in the 100 metres
- **1989, Asian Championships, New Delhi:** four golds and two silvers
Injury spoilt her Seoul Olympics in 1988. She retired in 1990, married, had a son and returned to win further Asian medals before retiring for good in 2000. By one count she won more than a hundred international medals.
After Running
The school
In 2002 she founded the Usha School of Athletics in Kozhikode district, which gives free training, schooling and lodging to promising girls. Its best-known product is the 800 metres runner Tintu Luka, an Asian champion and Olympian.
Administrator and MP
In July 2022 she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. In December 2022 she was elected unopposed as President of the Indian Olympic Association. Her term has seen India’s campaign at the Paris Olympics of 2024 and the country’s bid to host the Games in 2036, as well as public disagreements within the association’s executive.
Honours
- Arjuna Award (1983) and Padma Shri (1985)
- Named sportsperson of the century by the Indian Olympic Association
- World Athletics veteran pin for service to the sport
Personal Life
She married V. Srinivasan, a former kabaddi player and an officer of the Central Industrial Security Force, in 1991. They have one son. She worked for many years as an officer of the Southern Railway.
Featured image: P. T. Usha receiving the lifetime achievement award at the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year ceremony. Photo by BBC World Service India, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
