• A global sporting event where athletes with disabilities compete and display exceptional skill.
• Open to athletes with locomotor (bones, joints, muscles), sensory or intellectual disabilities.
• A celebration of resilience — the ability to recover quickly from difficult circumstances.
• The Games go beyond competition: they quell stereotypes and redefine possibilities.
• The Paralympic symbol is the Agitos — Latin for “I move” — three crescents in red, blue and green.

1. 1968 — Bharat makes its Paralympic debut.
2. 1972 — The country’s first medal is clinched, in swimming.
3. Since then many Indian Paralympians have brought honour to the nation.
4. One of them, Dr. Deepa Malik, has left an indelible mark on countless aspiring athletes.

The interviewer asks five questions. The whole text turns on them.

How did she brave the odds?

• She accepted the tragedy but refused to be defeated by it, and moved from swimming to para-athletics.
• The Rio silver was, in hindsight, both a personal victory and a step forward in changing perceptions.

What do the accolades mean to her?

• They are a testament to her belief that physical limitations don’t define one’s potential.
• She is a proponent of the school of thought — ‘ability beyond disability’.

Her biggest challenge

• Societal perceptions — people often underestimated her abilities.
• Overcoming this needed not only physical strength but mental resilience.
• Family support, coupled with her fortitude, turned obstacles into stepping stones.

How sport changes society

• When people witness the strength, skill and competitive spirit of para-athletes, preconceived notions break down.
• The Paralympics gave her a new lease of life and helped her push boundaries.
• It made her realise that individuals with disabilities can be as capable, if not more, than their able-bodied counterparts.

Her advocacy work

• Strengthening the emotional health of persons with challenges.
• Empowering women through outdoor sports and adventure activities.
• Supporting people from lower socio-economic strata and providing equipment to para sportspersons.
• Running disability sports awareness sessions in schools and colleges — because “youth is the voice of tomorrow.”

• Resilience — rising after a setback is the real victory.
• Ability beyond disability — a physical limit does not decide potential.
• Breaking stereotypes — sport is the strongest tool for changing how society thinks.
• Choice over circumstance — Deepa Malik’s life turns on the choice she made, not on what happened to her.
• Inclusivity and dignity — everyone, regardless of ability, deserves dignity and a fair chance to succeed.
• Youth as agents of change — awareness must begin in schools and colleges.

The turning point of her life, and the line the title comes from. Tragedy did not decide her future; her choice did.

The belief behind every award she has won. Her achievements are the proof, not the claim.

Her closing advice. Disability is reframed completely — not as something missing, but as a power not yet released.

Her reason for taking advocacy into schools and colleges rather than only to policymakers.

Phrases worth remembering

A. Modal auxiliaries

Modals are helping verbs whose function changes with the situation.

B. Direct → Reported Speech

1. Use a reporting verb — said / told / says.
2. Remove the quotation marks and add the linking word ‘that’.
3. Change the pronouns: I → he/she, you → he/she, my → his/her.
4. Move the tense one step back: love → loved, have been → had been, decided → had decided, is → was, will → would.
5. Change time and place words: now → then, today → that day, this → that, next weekend → the following weekend.
6. Exception: if the reporting verb is in the present tense (says), the tense does not change.

1. Athletes have come from every corner of the country to run for gold, silver and bronze. Weeks and months of training now rest on these games.
2. Spectators gather around the old field to cheer the young women and men. The final event of the day is approaching and excitement is high.
3. The blocks are lined up for the hundred-yard dash. Nine resolved athletes wait at the starting line, poised for the sound of the gun.
4. The pistol explodes and the runners charge ahead — but the smallest among them stumbles, staggers and falls to the asphalt.
5. He cries out in frustration and anguish; his dreams and efforts lie dashed in the dirt. But what happens next is the real story.
6. The eight other runners — the ones who had trained so long to compete — pull up on their heels, turn round one by one, go back and bring the boy to his feet.
7. All nine then join hands and continue. The hundred-yard dash is now a walk, and the banner overhead reading “Special Olympics” could not have been more on the mark.
8. The race ends with nine gold medals. They cross the finish line still holding hands, and a standing ovation with nine beaming faces says more than words ever will.

• Empathy above winning — eight athletes gave up their medals to lift a fallen competitor.
• True victory is the kindness they showed, not the medal they might have won.
• Inclusion — this is exactly the ethos of the Special Olympics, and the banner overhead says so.
• The turning point is the boy’s fall; from that moment competition becomes compassion.
• Actions speak louder — the last line says the beaming faces and the ovation said more than words ever could.

Three different events — don’t mix them up in the exam.

• 1948 — Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised a sports competition in England for war veterans with spinal cord injuries. This was the origin of the Paralympics.
• The Stoke Mandeville Games were Olympic-style games for differently-abled athletes.
• 1960, Rome — organised for the first time; the Games have evolved ever since.
• The Paralympics are split into Winter and Summer Games, which alternate every two years.
• Since the late twentieth century the Paralympics are held in the same host city as the Olympics, following shortly after.
• 776 BC — the first Olympic Game, part of an ancient Greek festival celebrating Zeus.
• The Olympic motto is Citius–Altius–Fortius–Communiter = Faster–Higher–Stronger–Together.
• The Olympic torch symbolises peace and friendship; the flame is lit at Olympia, Greece.
• Lesser-known para sports include para equestrian and para rowing — para equestrians must develop their own style of communication with their horse.

• Paralympics = athletes with locomotor, sensory or intellectual disabilities
• India: debut 1968 · first medal 1972 (swimming)
• Deepa Malik: spine tumour at 29 → paralysed waist down → silver, shot-put, Rio 2016
• Awards: Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Padma Shri · Motto: ability beyond disability
• Biggest challenge: societal perceptions; weapons against it: family support + fortitude
• Poem: Nine Gold Medals by David Roth — 8 stanzas, Special Olympics, hundred-yard dash
• Turning point: the smallest runner falls → the other eight go back → all nine finish holding hands
• Message: empathy and inclusion matter more than winning