Prachi Yadav Paralympics from Bhopal India

Prachi Yadav born on 1995-05-29 in Gwalior, India.

Education :

Language Spoken : English, Hindi

Coach : PK Baroi [club]; Mayank Thakur [national]

She took up Para canoe in 2018. She had previously competed in Para swimming, which she began in 2007. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 18 May 2021)

Reason: She switched from Para swimming to Para canoe following encouragement from her coach, who thought she had a better chance of going to the Paralympic Games in the sport. “[Coach] Virender Kumar Dabas asked me to switch to Para canoe as I have long arms. I loved it from the start. I started with a kayak, which was easy for me, but I needed to do canoe to try and qualify for the Paralympics, which was much harder.” (newindianexpress.com, 19 May 2021; canoeicf.com, 07 Apr 2021)

Ambition: To win a medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 27 Aug 2023)

Milestones: She became the first Para canoe sprint athlete to represent India at the Paralympic Games when she competed at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Sep 2023; scroll.in, 10 Sep 2021)

She became the first athlete representing India to win gold in canoeing at the Asian Para Games when the sport made its debut at the 2022 Games in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China. She claimed victory in the women’s single KL2 200m event. (SportsDeskOnline, 08 Feb 2024; thebridge.in, 25 Oct 2023)

Training: She trains at Lower Lake in Bhopal, India. She has two sessions a day, lasting for a total of seven hours. “I do CrossFit and circuit training to keep fit and use ergometers for technical training as well.” (globalindian.com, 06 Jan 2024)

Influence: Her father, and her husband Manish Kaurav. (globalindian.com, 06 Jan 2024; paralympic.org, 27 Oct 2023)

Philosophy: “I stay focused, work hard, and leave the rest to destiny.” (globalindian.com, 06 Jan 2024)

Award: In 2024 she received the Arjuna Award in India. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 10 Jan 2024)

General
COUPLE’S SPORT
She and her husband Manish Kaurav have both represented India in Para canoe. “When I compete, I know that I’ll win a medal. But watching him compete, I get nervous. I always feel more nervous when he competes. My husband has been competing in Para sport for more than 10 years but he started winning medals internationally last year [speaking in 2023]. So that’s why I always want him to win more and more medals. When I first met him, he was India’s number one athlete [in the sport] and I wanted to be like him. He was very kind and he was very, very good to me. We started training together. He helped me a lot during training and that’s how we started to develop feelings for each other.” (paralympic.org, 27 Oct 2023; thebridge.in, 26 Oct 2023)

FIRST CANOE
When she began practising the sport in 2018, she trained on a customised canoe using an oil drum attached by bamboo on one side to maintain the canoe’s balance. “When I started my practice in 2018, there was hardly any awareness of Para athletes in kayaking and canoeing. There was no boat. In such a situation, the biggest challenge for me was to start practising. My coach Mayank Thakur told me that he would construct a prototype of the boat. I was not sure how it would work but when I used the boat, I found that it was efficient.” (thebridge.in, 26 Oct 2023; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 18 May 2021)

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