If Tokyo 2021 was the birth of a star, then Paris 2024 was the Games that sealed the legend that is Avani Lekhara.
Before this bespectacled, 22-year-old girl in a wheelchair, no Indian had defended an Olympic or Paralympic gold. Avani, who made history as a teenager when she became the first Indian woman to win Paralympics gold (and first female multi-medallist) at the Tokyo Games, did just that as followed up her Tokyo heroics with a second straight gold medal in women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 at Paris. And she did it with a second straight Paralympic record score.
She came, she saw, and she conquered. Again.
It was India's first gold at Paris 2024, the first time that India's national anthem was heard across both the Olympics and Paralympics this year... but that doesn't tell the full tale.
The reigning Tokyo champion had a whole different set of odds to overcome in Paris. This included recovery from a surgery in the lead-up, increased competition within India (which resulted in a double podium with Mona Agarwal), and a very nervy final where the leads kept changing and Avani needed to hold her nerves till the last shot. Not to mention the pressure which comes with being an elite Indian athlete trying to defend a title.
But once she was in the Chateauroux Shooting Range for the final, she was able to push all that behind and deliver a clutch, measured performance worthy of a champion.
Avani started slow but was consistent through, with only one shot below 10. She climbed up with big scores in the upper 10s and put herself in medal contention early. But the lead at the top kept changing hands between the three medallists; Avani, Mona, and South Korea's Lee Yunri.
At one point, Avani came down to third but responded with a 10.6 and a 10.7 - terrific shots under pressure. The final series, though, was the most nerve-wracking and it's where Avani showed her champion mindset the best. After the first shot, where she hit 9.9 and Lee hit a 10.7, it looked like Avani would have to relinquish her gold medal. But then came the final twist. Call it a slice of luck or call it managing pressure, but Lee hit a wayward, gold-botching 6.8. On the other hand, Avani kept calm and hit a 10.5. The gold was hers again.
Her smile after that last shot could have lit up the whole town of Chateauroux - relief at the gold, disbelief at the final shot and pure, undiluted joy. A smile that showed how young she is at 22, a smile that showed pride in her performance.
फ्रांस में फिर एक बार गूंजा भारत का राष्ट्रगान!
भारत माता कि जय ���� pic.twitter.com/XGoGnRXaME- Avani Lekhara अवनी_लेखरा PLY (@AvaniLekhara) June 12, 2022
By now, Avani's backstory is well known. An active child, she met a major car accident when she was 11 which confined her to a wheelchair. Being a woman in a wheelchair brings with it its own set of challenges and the accident made her retreat into a shell... which was broken once she picked up the rifle.
She picked up shooting as a hobby, after reading India's first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra's autobiography, A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey To Olympic Gold. She became an accomplished shooter and such was her drive and talent that she travelled to Mumbai from Jaipur to train and even made her academy, where she trained with national coach Suma Shirur.
As the breakthrough Paralympics campaign showed, though, India's para-sport success has now reached a peak where the narrative is not just about overcoming adversity, it's about pushing the limits of possibility to reach the podium again.
Avani's evolution from Tokyo to Paris is a prime example of this. Her title defence story was about her improved technique, better focus and experience of close matches. It was about bolstering her physical strength after surgery to reach peak fitness again (and stamina is key in rifle shooting, especially in a wheelchair). It was about reinforcing her mental strength after, with the world watching and competition building. It was about an elite athlete showing her veteran stripes at only 22.
Today, Avani has achieved milestones that will make for an autobiography inspiring on the same level as Bindra's. And the conversation will be about more than the shooter on a wheelchair, it will be about India's first athlete to win back-to-back gold medals at the Paralympics. This perception change is perhaps as important as her historic multi-medal haul.
Unlike Tokyo, she couldn't quite follow the same in her other events. But the golden start she gave the Indian contingent was followed by India's best ever - by some margin - medal haul at the 2024 Paralympics.
For being a history-maker with successive gold medals and a pathbreaker with her champion mentality, Avani Lekhara is ESPN India's female para-athlete of 2024.