Paris Paralympics 2024: Narayana Konganapalle’s Journey From Landmine to Lifeline
Life can change in a blink – or, in the case of Narayana Konganapalle, with one step. Just seven days before the completion of his tenure in Jammu and Kashmir, Narayana stepped on a landmine. His world exploded, quite literally, with his leg blown off below the knee. Newly married and eager to go home, this was not quite the homecoming he had in mind. What do you do when the direction of your life changes so suddenly? If you are Narayana, you resort to sports and in the process create a saga of grit and willpower that may motivate an entire nation. Prosthetics and Perseverance Months in hospital passed, and Narayana did not know how to impart the news to both his parents and his wife. He kept the secret and his spirit intact, finding hope in the form of a prosthetic limb at Pune’s Artificial Limb Centre. A year after that incident, Narayana was walking again, and he was getting ready for an all-new adventure. And it wasn’t your regular post-army career move either. From Border Patrol to Rowing Royalty Narayana’s venture into sports began with javelin, but running did not agree with his newly fitted leg. In came rowing. Within one year of this, he was killing it-inning medals at the 2019 Poland Championship and bringing home bronze from the World Rowing Cup and the Asian Championships. The second master of this former sepoy, once guarding India’s borders, was now creating waves-quite literally-on the world stage, along with his rowing partner, Kuldeep Singh, another soldier with a story of resilience. Together they snagged bronze at the 2022 World Cup. Rowing with a Twist Just when you thought his story couldn’t get more epic, the 2023 Para-Asian Games threw in a curveball. The men’s event was scratched and Narayana needed a new partner. Along came Anita, another amputee of fighting spirit. With just eight months of training, this time the dynamic duo began to row their way into silver in the Para-Asian Games and faster than it takes to say the word “underdog,” qualified in the Paralympics of 2024. Not bad for two people that a few years prior had to relearn how to walk! First a soldier, then a rower-Narayana’s story is one of life’s quirky little twists and turns that you can’t help but enjoy. From battlefield to the lanes, his story showed that no matter how fantastically life decides to blow up in your face-or leg-there’s always a way to row forward. The Sportz Planet Desk,Atharva Shetye
