Deepthi Jeevanji enjoyed a memorable Paralympic debut as the Indian won bronze in the women’s 400m T20 category at the Stade de France on Tuesday evening. Deepthi clocked 55.82s for her career’s biggest medal, while Ukraine’s Yulia Shuliar took the gold and Turkey’s Ayser Onder won silver.
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Deepthi had a strong start off the blocks and controlled her pace well, saving enough energy for the final burst. She turned on the afterburners in the second bend as she went past the USA’s Breanna Clark into the second position. It looked like Deepthi had done enough to win the silver metal, but was undone by a brilliant late surge from Shuliar, who scorched down the track in the final third. The Ukrainian secured a personal best of 55.16s for the gold, while Onder, who broke Deepthi’s world record on Monday, hung on for the silver.
Deepthi competes in the T20 category, which is for athletes with intellectual impairment. The 20-year-old has cognitive impairments, which affect her communication and understanding skills. Deepthi was born with unusual features and it caused quite a furore in her village of Kalleda in Warangal, Telangana. In fact, people told her parents to leave her at an orphanage, but her parents did no such thing.
Deepthi’s big break came when she was 15 and her talent was spotted by coach N Ramesh at a state-level athletics meet in 2019. Ramesh, who is India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand’s long-term coach, invited Deepthi to come train in Hyderabad. However, such was the family’s financial plight that they could not afford the bus fare to send Deepthi from Warangal to Hyderabad.
Ramesh made it happen, and Deepthi’s career took off. That very year, she won a bronze medal at the Asian Youth Championships in Hong Kong and followed it up with a double gold [100m and 200m] at the 2020 Khelo India Youth Games. Such was Deepthi’s talent that she was backed by legendary Indian badminton player and coach Pulella Gopichan through his Gopichand-Mytrah Foundation.
Over the last two years, Deepthi has been the best runner in her category. She broke the Asian record to win gold at the 2023 Para Asian Games and then broke the then-world record at the 2024 World Championships for gold. Deepthi had the world record until last night [55.07s] when Turkey’s Onder clocked 54.96s to make the record her own.
The world record may not be hers anymore, but Deepthi now has a medal at the biggest stage in para-sports: the Paralympics. It’s a fine of redemption for Deepthi, those who taunted and chided her for her impairments are now celebrating her success.