It all started in 2016 at Berlin for her and she says she has not looked behind since then. She has crossed one obstacle after another and now flies to Tokyo to throw the club as far as possible to clinch the gold. The Paralympics gold.

Ekta Bhyan, a club and discus thrower, will be fighting for a podium finish at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 in Women's club throw F51.

The Hisar girl is World No 5 and started pursuing the sport at the international level in 2016.

Club/discus throw came into her life as late as 11 years after she met with an accident in 2003 and injured her spinal cord which resulted in paralysis of her lower and upper body.

In 2014, she started playing sports to get physically fit before one of her interviews published in a newspaper reached Paralympian Amit Kumar Saroha who has done the country proud in the same sport in the past.
 

Saroha asked her to pursue club and discus throw and Ekta didn't waste much time and jumped in.

"I was unaware that there can be a sport specially designed for quadriplegic persons. When one of my interviews was published in the newspaper, my coach Amit Soraha contacted me and then I got to know he also has the same disability as mine. He asked me if I wanted to give a chance, and I went for it. I won a medal in Berlin in 2016 and never looked back," said Ekta.

A quadriplegic person is someone who has paralysis on all four limbs. In Ekta's case, she has her two legs fully paralysed while the upper limbs are partially paralysed. Club throw is the only event designed for quadriplegic persons in Paralympics, says Ekta.

The last one-and-a-half years have been difficult for her. First, the talks of postponement of Games and then the preparation, to stay fit when it gets the green signal. Because of her disability, it was difficult for her to train outside. Being a quadriplegic person, she is among the group of people at high risk during the coronavirus pandemic. That forced her to stay at home and not avail any services from outside, not even a trainer at home.

So she brought all the training equipment home.

She explains, "I set up the gym, para bands and focussed mainly on my fitness strengthening exercises. I could not go to my ground for my throw sessions. But one thing was clear in my mind that whether Games are happening or not, I have to stick to my time table, training six days a week, taking care of my nutrition and mental health."

In order to stay mentally healthy during the lockdown, Ekta took up many hobbies as well as rediscovering some. For instance, she cleaned the dust from her poetry notebook and started writing to get the boredom out of the way and also started painting.

"Alongside training I started pursuing some hobbies. I started painting and writing poetry. That helped a lot although it was a very challenging time. Especially in 2021, the month of April and May."
 

During this period of no sports, no competitions and no personal training, she relied on the video notes from her coach. The focus was not to just maintain the fitness levels but also to improve. She could not go to Sports Authority of India (SAI) to train in person because it was too risky for her life so the next best plan was to train alone at home and send the videos to Saroha for a review.

"I could not get any help from any trainer and gym was not safe option to get any help from a trainer who was coming from outside. My family only assisted me in keeping me fit for the Games."

"Though I was in touch with him (Saroha) online, still there is a difference in training in person and training through digital mediums. I was sending him videos and he was telling me you have to improve this and that," said Ekta.

The last international event that she took part in was in Dubai at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championship. Since then, there have been no events possible due to the pandemic. It was only in March 2021 that she could gauge her improvement at the national para athletic championship in Bengaluru.
Source: https://www.firstpost.com/sports/tokyo-paralympics-2020-person-first-and-disabled-later-ekta-bhyan-aims-to-bring-social-change-through-sports-9890861.html