Paralympic Games are not just a story of fierce competition between players from different countries, but also a story of courage. They give such people a chance to showcase their talent in front of the world, who leave behind the pressure of sports and physical problems and show their strength. India's para-badminton player Suhas L. Yathiraj is one such player who did not let his disability come in the way of success. In the Paris Paralympic Games 2024, Suhas won the silver medal in the Men's Badminton SL-4 category and created history with it. The most special thing is that Suhas has done all this while being an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

In the Paris Paralympics, Suhas had to face defeat at the hands of a French player in his final match. In this way, his dream of winning the Paralympic gold medal was shattered. But perhaps the dream of winning the gold medal was not as big as breaking his physical limitations and reaching this level and representing the country, and he not only fulfilled this dream in Paris but has been doing so for the last several years.

Disability was not allowed to become an obstacle

IAS Suhas's journey to this position is no less than a film story.

It was not that he was a victim of an accident and then he lost his physical ability, rather he was physically handicapped from birth. He had a problem in his legs, due to which life was very difficult for him since childhood. Born in Shimoga, Karnataka, Suhas never let this problem come in his way and showed full interest in sports along with studies since childhood. During this time, he used to play sports like badminton and cricket with great passion. He got the fruits of this and he completed his engineering in computer science from NIT.

If there were already enough obstacles in life, then in 2005 he got a big shock when his biggest supporter, his father, passed away.

It was from here that Suhas gathered himself again and decided to pass the UPSC exam. In 2007, he also succeeded in it and became an IAS officer. After this, he took up responsibilities in different districts of Uttar Pradesh and during this time, during the inauguration of a badminton tournament, his love for this game was awakened again. He played a few matches in that tournament and it was here that badminton coach Gaurav Khanna noticed him, from where the journey of both started and under his coaching Suhas made himself better in this game.

Hobby became passion, created history

His hobby of badminton soon became a passion. In 2016, he won the gold medal in the Asian Para Badminton Tournament. With this, he also became the first administrative officer of India to win a badminton championship at the world level. Then came the year 2021 when Suhas created history. While being the District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, he won the silver medal in the Tokyo Paralympics and also became the first Indian administrative officer to do so.

He has now repeated this success in Paris and has become the first badminton player of India to win a Paralympic medal twice.