Krishna Nagar: Wins gold medal for father at Tokyo Paralympics, who could not pursue his sporting dreams

Winning a medal for the country at an Olympics or Paralympics is always considered as one of the greatest achievements of all time in sports but to do so and also fulfill your father's dream in the process is an emotion so pure that it is hard to justify them in words. At the Tokyo Paralympics, 22-year-old shuttler Krishna Nagar from India had made his mission to achieve just that and he did it in style by winning the gold medal in the Men's Singles SH6 Para-Badminton.

Krishna's father, who introduced him to badminton, used to play softball at the national level and had dreamt of winning the Olympic medal but couldn't continue with the sports due to family issues. However, Krishna made sure that he's able to fulfill that dream as he became the second Indian to win a gold medal in badminton at the Tokyo Paralympics.

After being diagnosed with dwarfism at the age of four, Krishna initially tried his hand at many sports, including badminton, with the purpose of increasing his height during his teenage. However, he eventually faced up with the reality of the situation and decided to take up para-badminton in 2017 and he hasn't looked back since.

One year later, in 2018, Krishna announced himself on the international stage as he won the bronze medal, competing in the Men's Singles SH6 category at the Para Asian Games in Indonesia. Krishna then went on to win the bronze medal in the same category, at the World Championship in Switzerland in 2019.

At the Tokyo Paralympics, Krishna started his campaign in an impressive manner winning his opening group match against Malaysia's Didin Taresoh in straight sets. He took this momentum in the second group match and defeated Brazilian Vitor Goncalves Tavares in straight sets as well. In the semifinals, Krishna was up against Great Britain's Krysten Coombs and looked really comfortable as he once again won the match in the first two sets and thereby securing his place in the final.

Fighting for the gold, Krishna's opponent in the final was Hongkong's Chu Man Kai and the two of them had competed against each other three times before the final with the Indian winning two of those matches. It was a closely contested final as Krishna won the first set 21-17 but lost the second to Chu Man Kai 16-21. The third and final set turned to be really intense with Krishna prevailing by a scoreline of 21-17 and securing India's fifth gold medal, second in badminton, at the Tokyo Paralympics.