Vijaya Sarathy and Kasthuri Rajamani
Kasthuri Rajamani can be certain a roar of encouragement would go up for her at 5 p.m. on September 6. A para powerlifter, she would enter the arena at that hour for her opening game at the Paralympic Games in Paris.
She is 39 and making her debut in paralympics, proving it is never too late to follow one’s dreams.
Kasthuri joined competitive para powerlifting at 35. She is affected by polio in both her legs. As a toddler, she lost her mother, and would go on to be raised by her grandmother with the support of her uncle and aunt.
“A friend brought Kasthuri to the boxing academy at a Corporation Ground in Nungambakkam for training in powerlifting,” recalls G. Vijaya Sarathy, a senior para coach with Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu.
Seeing a spark in her, the coach asked her to take part in a competition even before training her. “We told her the rules of the sports that morning and by evening she won a gold medal. It was a state para powerlifting event in December 2018,” says Vijaya.
Until then Kasthuri was earning a meagre income working in the back office of a company. She was focussed entirely on supplementing the family income.
She juggled work and training to win more medals that required her to quit her job. “She was hesitant as it gave her dignity, so we found a sponsor who assured her an amount of ₹20,000 every month,” he says.
Life has not been easy for this wheelchair user in the last five years. “In 2022, at her first international championship, she failed in all the three lifts,” says Vijaya.
Her dismal performance forced the sponsor to withdraw support to her. “Kasthuri’s grandmother, who was her biggest support, died that same year,” he says.
In 2023, she bounced back. She was selected for extensive training by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
As per the Facebook page of SAI, Kasthuri has won multiple gold medals at national and international championships.
She is the first woman from Tamil Nadu to represent India in para powerlifting at international events.
Vijaya Sarathy, who continues to track her training log, says: “Kasthuri is taking part in the 67 kilos category and I am pinning a lot of hopes on her. Identifying someone at the grassroot level, making sure she does not make any of those mistakes that I did and now seeing her compete in the paralympics is a special joy that cannot be expressed. Her journey will serve as an encouragement to my students as well.”
