My wheelchair is my legs and my family is my backbone: Avani Lekhara

In a Q&A, the shooting gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics talks about her difficult journey after a debilitating accident left the wheelchair-bound champion totally paralysed waist down

On August 30, 2021, shooter Avani Lekhara won India's first gold medal in the women's 10-metre Air Rifle Standing (SH1) event at the 2020 Paralympics Games in Tokyo, finishing with a world record-equalling total of 249.6. But her biggest victory has been over her disability. She suffered severe injuries to her spinal cord, getting complete paraplegia, and losing sensation below the waist after a car accident in 2012. Edited excerpts from an interview with Namrata Kohli:

Let’s start from the very beginning. How did it all happen? Can you share some details about that life-changing and unfortunate car accident that