When at school, Praveen Kumar enjoys playing volleyball.
He is smart in the game; The leap while hitting SMASH is considered impressive.
If he has hopes of making a career sport at all during that period, the volleyball is his first choice.
However, everything changed in grade 9 when a wisher suggested him to shift to a high leap after seeing the jumping jump during a volleyball match.
“It was just the beginning,” Pradeep told Toi after winning a silver medal at the Men’s High Jump T64 event in Paralympics on Friday.
Pradeep, which from Greater Noida, made a course correction and immersed himself in full sports.
The results immediately began to follow.
He said he won a gold medal at the CBSE meeting and made him convinced that sports could offer the future.
“I met my coach Satyapal Singh in September 2018.
He saw my potential and took me under his wing.” Within a few months, he won silver in the World Championship Junior Junior to announce his arrival at the scene.
Immediately after, he graduated to the senior level and finished fourth in the world championship in Dubai in 2019.
Praveen, whose father was an employee in the government’s irrigation department and a farmer also, happy to win silver at his first.
Paralympics in Tokyo on Friday.
“I am not sad to skip gold, because silver is a hidden blessing for me.
That means I will be motivated to struggle to finish over Paris Paralympics in 2024.”