Avani Lekhara

Avani Lekhara
	Lekhara with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Paralympic medalists at the Prime Minister's Residence in 2021.
Personal information
Full name	Avani Lekhara
Born	8 November 2001 (age 22); Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Height	5 ft 3 in (160 cm)
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Shooting
Event(s)	Air Rifle SH1
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2020 Summer Paralympics: 10m air rifle standing SH1 – Gold
Medal record
Representing India
Women's shooting
World Cup
Paralympic Games

Avani Lekhara (born 8 November 2001) is an Indian Paralympian and rifle shooter. She won a Gold Medal in 10m air rifle standing and a Bronze Medal in 50m rifle 3 positions at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Avani Lekhara wins gold medal in shooting event] Hindustan Times. Retrieved 30 August 2021 Lekhara is currently World No 1^[1] in Women's 10m Air Rifle standing SH1 (World Shooting Para Sport Rankings) and has competed in the 2018 Asian Para Games.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] She has been supported by GoSports Foundation through the Para Champions Programme.^[6] She is also the first Indian woman to win multiple medals in a single Paralympic Games.^[7] She has been given out of turn appointment as Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) by the Government of Rajasthan.^[8]

Career

Lekhara is the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal.^[9]^[10]^[11] Lekhara also won India's first gold medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. With a score of 249.6 points in the final event, the young shooter set a Paralympic record and tied the world record.^[12] She began shooting in 2015, inspired by former Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and has since won several national and international titles.^[13] On 3 September 2021, she became the first Indian female Paralympian to win two medals in Paralympics history after claiming bronze in women's 50m air rifle standing event.^[14]^[15]

Personal life

A car accident in 2012, at the age of 11, left her with complete paraplegia. Her father encouraged her to join sports, training in archery but moving to shooting in which she found her true passion. She currently studies law in Rajasthan, India.^[16]

She was student of Kendriya Vidyalaya 3 (Jaipur), where she received her first gold medal in regional match of shooting.^[17]

Awards

2021 – Khel Ratna Award, highest sporting honour of India.^[18]
2021 - Young Indian of the Year - GQ India
2021 - Vogue Women of the Year - Vogue Magazine
2021 - Best Female Debut - Paralympic Awards - International Paralympic Committee
2022 - Padma Shri Award^[19]
2022 - FICCI FLO Award for Excellence in Sports
2022 - She - Age Award by Hindustan Times
2022 - Para Athlete of the Year (Female) - Sportstar
2022 - BBC India Change Maker Of The Year 2021
2022 - BRICS CCI WE - Trailblazer 2022

References

^ "World Shooting Para Sport Rankings / Official World Rankings 2021". World Shooting Para Sport.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "Para shooter Avani Lekhara clinches silver; India stay in top three". Indian Express News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "Avani Lekhara". The Bridge News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "Para World Cup: Teenage shooter Avani Lekhara wins 10m air rifle silver". Time of India News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "Avani Lekhara wins women's 10m air rifle silver medal at World Shooting Para Sport World Cup". Firstpost News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ "Improvise, adapt, overcome: Indian para athletes' mantra for beating lockdown". ESPN. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win multiple medals at Paralympics". ESPN. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
^ "News Detail". dipr.rajasthan.gov.in. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
^ "Truly special moment: India celebrates Avani Lekhara, the golden girl at Tokyo Paralympics". India Today. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ "Shooter Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win gold at Paralympics". The Hindu. Press Trust of India. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ Haq, Sana Noor. "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win Paralympic gold". CNN. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
^ "Shooting athlete Avani Lekhara enters history books with gold". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
^ "India's first woman Paralympic gold medallist Avani Lekhara inspired by Abhinav Bindra's autobiography". The Indian Express. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
^ Peter, Naveen (3 September 2021). "Shooter Avani Lekhara scripts history, becomes first Indian woman to win two Paralympics medals". Olympics.com. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
^ "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win 2 Paralympic medals". The Times of India. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
^ "Tokyo Paralympic 2020: Avani Lekhara wins historic gold for India in shooting". BBC News. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ Kartik, RJ (7 October 2021). "Avani Lekhara Interview". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022.
^ "National Sports Awards 2021: Neeraj Chopra, Lovlina Borgohain, Mithali Raj Among 9 Others to Get Khel Ratna". News18. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
^ Sharma, Nitin (26 January 2022). "Para champions, Neeraj Chopra, hockey star Vandana Katariya among Padma awardees". Indian Express. Retrieved 26 January 2022.

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[1] "World Shooting Para Sport Rankings / Official World Rankings 2021". World Shooting Para Sport.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[2] "Para shooter Avani Lekhara clinches silver; India stay in top three". Indian Express News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[3] "Avani Lekhara". The Bridge News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[4] "Para World Cup: Teenage shooter Avani Lekhara wins 10m air rifle silver". Time of India News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[5] "Avani Lekhara wins women's 10m air rifle silver medal at World Shooting Para Sport World Cup". Firstpost News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[6] "Improvise, adapt, overcome: Indian para athletes' mantra for beating lockdown". ESPN. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[7] "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win multiple medals at Paralympics". ESPN. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.

[8] "News Detail". dipr.rajasthan.gov.in. Retrieved 11 September 2021.

[9] "Truly special moment: India celebrates Avani Lekhara, the golden girl at Tokyo Paralympics". India Today. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[10] "Shooter Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win gold at Paralympics". The Hindu. Press Trust of India. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[11] Haq, Sana Noor. "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win Paralympic gold". CNN. Retrieved 3 September 2021.

[12] "Shooting athlete Avani Lekhara enters history books with gold". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 3 September 2021.

[13] "India's first woman Paralympic gold medallist Avani Lekhara inspired by Abhinav Bindra's autobiography". The Indian Express. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

[14] Peter, Naveen (3 September 2021). "Shooter Avani Lekhara scripts history, becomes first Indian woman to win two Paralympics medals". Olympics.com. Retrieved 22 May 2022.

[15] "Avani Lekhara becomes first Indian woman to win 2 Paralympic medals". The Times of India. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.

[16] "Tokyo Paralympic 2020: Avani Lekhara wins historic gold for India in shooting". BBC News. 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

[17] Kartik, RJ (7 October 2021). "Avani Lekhara Interview". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022.

[18] "National Sports Awards 2021: Neeraj Chopra, Lovlina Borgohain, Mithali Raj Among 9 Others to Get Khel Ratna". News18. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.

[19] Sharma, Nitin (26 January 2022). "Para champions, Neeraj Chopra, hockey star Vandana Katariya among Padma awardees". Indian Express. Retrieved 26 January 2022.

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v t e Recipients of Khel Ratna
1991–2000	Viswanathan Anand (1991–1992) Geet Sethi (1992–1993) Homi Motivala and Pushpendra Kumar Garg (1993–1994) Karnam Malleswari (1994–1995) Kunjarani Devi (1995–1996) Leander Paes (1996–1997) Sachin Tendulkar (1997–1998) Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (1998–1999) Dhanraj Pillay (1999–2000) Pullela Gopichand (2000–2001)
2001–2010	Abhinav Bindra (2001) K. M. Beenamol and Anjali Bhagwat (2002) Anju Bobby George (2003) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004) Pankaj Advani (2005) Manavjit Singh Sandhu (2006) MS Dhoni (2007) No award (2008) Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, and Sushil Kumar (2009) Saina Nehwal (2010)
2011–2020	Gagan Narang (2011) Vijay Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt (2012) Ronjan Sodhi (2013) No award (2014) Sania Mirza (2015) P. V. Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar, Jitu Rai, and Sakshi Malik (2016) Devendra Jhajharia and Sardara Singh (2017) Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and Virat Kohli (2018) Deepa Malik and Bajrang Punia (2019) Rohit Sharma, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Manika Batra, Vinesh Phogat, and Rani Rampal (2020) Avani Lekhara, Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Lovlina Borgohain, P. R. Sreejesh, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal, Mithali Raj, Sunil Chhetri and Manpreet Singh (2021)

v t e Paralympic medalists for India
1968 1972 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Gold medalists	: Murlikant Petkar (1972 Heidelberg) : Devendra Jhajharia (2 titles, 2004 Athens, 2016 Rio de Janeiro) : Mariyappan Thangavelu (2016 Rio de Janeiro) : Avani Lekhara (2020 Tokyo) : Sumit Antil (2020 Tokyo) : Manish Narwal (2020 Tokyo) : Pramod Bhagat (2020 Tokyo) : Krishna Nagar (2020 Tokyo)
Silver medalists	: Bhimrao Kesarkar (1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York) : Joginder Singh Bedi (1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York) : Girisha Nagarajegowda (2012 London) : Deepa Malik (2016 Rio de Janeiro) : Bhavina Patel (2020 Tokyo) : Nishad Kumar (2020 Tokyo) : Yogesh Kathuniya (2020 Tokyo) : Devendra Jhajharia (2020 Tokyo) : Mariyappan Thangavelu (2020 Tokyo) : Praveen Kumar (2020 Tokyo) : Singhraj Adhana (2020 Tokyo) : Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj (2020 Tokyo)
Bronze medalists	: Joginder Singh Bedi (2 titles, 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York) : Rajinder Singh Rahelu (2004 Athens) : Varun Singh Bhati (2016 Rio de Janeiro) : Sundar Singh Gurjar (2020 Tokyo) : Singhraj Adhana (2020 Tokyo) : Sharad Kumar (2020 Tokyo) : Avani Lekhara (2020 Tokyo) : Harvinder Singh (2020 Tokyo) : Manoj Sarkar (2020 Tokyo)

Avani Lekhara

Contents

Career

Personal life

Awards

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References

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