Story of Murlikant Petkar | A war hero & India’s First Paralympic Gold Medalist

BIOGRAPHY

Murlikant Petkar began his career as a member of the Indian Army. He was given a post of private in the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers. During the war of 1965 against Pakistan, Muelikant was badly injured and was disabled because of serious bullet injuries. Before he was a Boxer and due to his disability he changed the sport. In the summer Paralympics of 1968, Murlikant represented the country in table tennis and cleared the first round. After this championship, he turned his concentration to swimming and qualified into the Paralympics tournament of 1972.  

With his hard work and practice, Murlikant showed some great spirit of sports and won the Gold medal in 50m freestyle swimming. His finishing time of 37.33 seconds was also noted as the world record at that time. In honor of his great achievements in the area of sports and his contributions to the country, Murlikant Petkar was awarded Padma Shri in the year 2018.

Born on November 1, 1947, at Peth Islampur in Sangli district of what is now Maharashtra, Petkar has been a sportsman from childhood. Even before the debilitating encounter in the 1965 war, he would participate in sports. He was selected to represent India in boxing at the International Services Sports Meet at Tokyo in 1964. 

Petkar was conferred with Maharashtra's highest sporting award -- the Shiv Chhatrapati Award -- by the state government in 1975. But the man has never rested on his laurels and has always strived to better his own previous records.

Movie: Sushant Singh Rajput is attached to play the role. More details are to come yet. 

Here’s a list of upcoming Bollywood movies on sports: Upcoming Bollywood Movies on sports to watch out for

To know more, visit the website: http://murlikantpetkar.com/

Interview with Sir Murlikant Petkar - India's first Paralympic Gold Medalist