People only see medals and money, not the grind’: India’s athletes fired up for first-ever World Para Athletics Championships at home

NEW DELHI: Every revolution begins with a voice, a cry that cuts through doubt and demands belief. Paris Paralympics were not just another Games for India’s para-athletes but a turning point, when the world finally sat up and took notice. And no one summed it up better than javelin icon Navdeep Singh: “Before Paris, no one. After Paris, champion.”
In a few days, when the New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships open on September 27 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the roar of a billion hearts will meet the resolve of 73 athletes, the largest ever Indian contingent at a World Championships.

A country that returned from the Paris Paralympics with 29 medals, including 17 in athletics, and stamped its authority at the Kobe Worlds with another 17 medals, now has the chance to show the world its power on home soil.
For the first time ever, the stage is India’s.

The pressure, of course, is immense. Simran Sharma, the reigning world champion in the women’s 200 metres T12 event, admits it with refreshing honesty.
“There is definitely pressure on the home ground. Where there is support, there are also expectations. I won gold at the last World Championship, so somewhere I have to defend that medal,” she tells TimesofIndia.com.