Sports Minister announces huge cash rewards for Paralympic medalists

Indian Paralympians were showered with huge cash prizes as Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday presented cash awards of Rs 75 lakh for gold medalists, Rs 50 lakh for silver medalists, and Rs 30 lakh for bronze medalists.

The mixed team event medalists got a cash prize of Rs 22.5 lakh each.

Cheques were presented to the medal winners during an event organized to felicitate the medalists at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.

"The country is rising in Paralympics and para sports. From 4 medals in 2016, India have won 19 medals in Tokyo and 29 in Paris with 18th place finish," Mandaviya said.

Mandaviya also pledged full support and facilities for para-athletes to aim for more medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

"We will provide all the facilities to all of our para-athletes so that we can win more medals and gold medals in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics."

The 17 medalists present today included: Para Athletics – Gold medalists: Navdeep, Dharambir, Sumit Antil, Praveen Kumar; Silver medalists: Yogesh Kathuniya, Nishad Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Ajeet Singh, Sachin Khilari; Bronze medalists: Preeti Pal, Mariyappan, Hokato Sema, Sundar Singh Gurjar and Simran Sharma. Para-Archery - Harvinder Singh (Gold) and Sheetal Devi (Bronze) as well as Kapil Parmar (Bronze) from Para-Judo.

India recorded a historic campaign at the Paralympics as the 84-member strong contingent returned home with 29 medals including seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze.