As India’s pride PV Sindhu grabbed the attention everyone in India after she created history by winning gold medal at BDF world championship, PM Modi too showered her with his praise saying she brought home gold and a lot of glory. However, a day ago, the country’s athletes had also won 12 medals in the BWF Para Badminton World Championships held in Basel, Switzerland. One among the medalists Sukant Kadam replied to PM Modi’s tweet with a touching tweet saying they also wanted his blessings.
Though late, maybe with a tinge of repentance, PM Modi replied that 130 crore Indians are extremely proud of the Indian Para-Badminton contingent, which has brought home 12 medals at BWF World Championships 2019 and congratulated the team. Among the medalists, Manasi Joshi is an Indian Para-Badminton athlete. Manasi Joshi – it is all about a girl who started playing badminton with her father when she was 6 years and later met with a road accident by which she lost her left leg.
Manasi Joshi is an Indian Para-Badminton athlete who is currently World No. 2 among singles. She was born on 11 June 1989 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India in a Brahmin family as the daughter of Girish Joshi who is a scientist and worked at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai from 1982 to 2016.
Since childhood, Manasi had a keen interest in sports, especially in badminton. She started to play badminton with her father at the age of six. Mansi Joshi started to play at state-level tournaments at the age of 15. Later on, she joined a badminton coaching classes as well for professional training. After that, she reached at the national level in 2009.
Though Manasi is an electrical engineer by qualification, her interest was in computer science. She started learning about software and development and later joined ATOS India company located in Pune, Maharashtra as a software engineer.
On 2nd December 2011, Manasi is on the way to the office on a two-wheeler met a truck accident. Manasi was taken to the nearby hospital where her surgery was done. However, due to high infection on the left leg, the doctors had to amputate her leg.
It took 45 days to Manasi to recover the surgery in the hospital. However, after 45 days, Manasi started to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg.
After the recovery, Manasi resumed her work at Atos company as a software developer. Perhaps the turning point in her life was when her company organized a badminton tournament that Manasi won.
Inspired by the victory she decided to play at the higher-level tournament. She focused more on her diet plans and weight loss program.
In 2014, she filed the nomination to appear for Asia Games, however, didn’t get selected at the preliminary level. Once again in December 2014, she played her first match at the national level tournament in which she won a silver medal.
In 2015, she was selected for the fifth Spanish Para-Badminton International Championship. Manasi won a silver medal at Stoke Mandeville, England. She also appeared for Para-Badminton Asian Championships next year which brought her bronze medal in the category of women’s singles and doubles.
In 2017, she won the bronze medal at the Para-Badminton World Championships which was held in Ulsan, South Korea. For the third time in a row, Manasi won the bronze medal at Para-Badminton International tournament held in Thailand.
When Manasi Joshi wins Gold Medal for the first time at Para Olympics, perhaps it is not just a country proud of her achievement but people across the world who believes that disabilities are never obstacles for the success of those who are determined.
Watch her story here:
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