Narayana Konganapalle was seven days from finishing his posting in Jammu and Kashmir as a sepoy with the Indian Army when he stepped on a landmine. His leg exploded below the knee and life, as he knew it, changed in February 2015.
"I was ready to return to my unit in Rajasthan. Sirf 7 din baaki the aur mine blast hogaya [I had just seven days to go when the accident happened]. I was married for just 10 months at that point and had applied for advanced leave to go back home to my family," Narayana, who was with the Rashtriya Rifles, tells ESPN with a wry laugh.
He would then spend the next three months in a hospital in Udhampur, trying to process this new way of life. He told only his elder brothers about the incident and did not tell his parents or wife about it. He didn't know how to break the news to them. Hailing from a farming family and the youngest of four siblings, he enrolled himself in the Army in 2007 to provide for his family.
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From guarding India's borders as a sepoy to now being constrained to a bed, Narayana struggled to cope with his new reality. "I didn't know about artificial limbs or para-sports then. I just thought my life was over and that I would have to use support to walk for the rest of my life. I was newly married then and was really mentally affected because I didn't know how to tell my wife about it," recalls Narayana, who hails from the Nandyala district in Andhra Pradesh.
Narayana then learnt about the Artificial Limb Centre in Pune, where he could get a prosthetic limb made free of cost. Thus began a new journey for Narayana as he underwent multiple surgeries around his knee over the next seven months in Pune to ensure the prosthetic leg fit him perfectly and 11 months after the incident, he was back on two feet. It was only then that he took a break and went back home 11 months after the incident.
It was a challenging time, but Narayana found solace in sports. He met Lieutenant Colonel Gaurav Dutta, a para-triathlete himself and the Officer-In-Charge of the Army Paralympic Node in Pune, who introduced him to athletics.
"I did javelin for two years, but then I felt pain while running and I went back to our training centre in Bengaluru. It was in 2018 when Colonel Dutta asked me if I would like to give rowing a go and I went back to Pune to pursue the sport at the Army Rowing Node. I was just happy to be playing a sport," says Narayana, who currently holds the position of subedar.
Narayana made rapid strides in the sport as within a year, he won medals at the 2019 Poland championship and bronze medals in the 2019 World Rowing Cup and the Asian Championships. That was followed by a bronze in the 2022 World Cup with his then-partner Kuldeep Singh, who had also lost a leg during a landmine blast in Jammu and Kashmir.
"My life changed in a second, but it was also good in a way - I got into para-sports. One way of looking at it is that "Oh, I lost a leg" but the way I look at it is that I got into para-rowing because I lost a leg," he says.
But 2023 posed a unique challenge: the Para-Asian Games and 2024 Paralympics program did not feature the PR3 men's pair event but had the PR3 mixed doubles event. No female para-rowers trained at the Army Rowing Node and hence Narayana was in a fix, before he had a chance encounter with Anita, who was also an amputee. Anita had lost her left leg in an accident when she was 17.
Narayana convinced Anita to try rowing and the combination clicked as within eight months of training, the duo won silver at the Para Asian Games. "We had no hopes of a medal at the Asian Games because we were a newly-formed team but we went on to win a medal and an incredible feeling. People knew our names after we won that medal...what can be more special than that for an athlete?" says Narayana.
Congratulations to Anita and Narayana Konganapalle for their exceptional Silver Medal in Rowing - PR3 Mixed Double Sculls.
Their teamwork and dedication have shone brilliantly! This achievement fills the nation with pride. pic.twitter.com/zNWXL3T41l
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 28, 2023
The duo went one step further and qualified for the Paralympics by winning the Asian qualifying championship in South Korea this April by clocking 7:50.80, which was a whole minute faster than the 8:50.71 they'd clocked to win silver at the Para-Asian Games.
Narayana and Anita were always the underdogs at the Paralympics as they've trained together only for 18 months, but their journey here has been nothing short of inspiring. The two amputees were united by their passion for sport and were the first mixed double sculls team to qualify for the Paralympics.
The duo finished third in their repechage race on Saturday and will next compete in the B Final of the PR3 double sculls, which will determine the 7-12th ranking positions.