Professional boxer, war veteran, Paralympic hero: The story of Murlikant Petkar, India's first ever Olympic/Paralympic gold medalist

Petkar set a world record at the 1972 Olympics

He has won laurels for the country on the playing field and the battlefield. Multi-faceted in every sense of the term, Murlikant Petkar started off pursuing his first love, boxing.

Petkar was proficient at many sports – javelin, shot put, swimming, wrestling, boxing. Athletic as a youngster, he grew up striving to achieve something for his country.

Then, in 1965, war struck. Pakistan launched what came to be known as Operation Gibraltar, aiming to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir with the hope that it would secede from India and become part of Pakistan. The country launched an offensive that year, sending guerrillas into the north of India hoping to infiltrate the territory.

With poor coordination, the operation failed, but it also sparked the biggest war India had seen since Independence 18 years prior. The Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 saw India launch a full-scale military attack in retaliation. It was the world’s largest tank battle since the Second World War, and saw nearly 3000 Indian casualties.

Fighting on the frontlines was Petkar, then a private-jawan in the Indian Army. Seriously injured in the firing, he sustained severe bullet wounds that all but ended the sporting aspirations of the former Electronics and Mechanical Engineering branch (EME) Secunderabad boxer.

Left crippled by war, Petkar resolutely refused to give up, choosing to pursue his sporting career with a renewed vigour and passion, even more so than before he sustained life-changing injuries.

This time, Petkar took up swimming, javelin, slalom racing, shot put and table tennis – each of them very seriously, training towards a competitive goal. His efforts paid off three years later, when Petkar was selected to be part of India’s paralympic squad at the 1968 Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel.

That year, he participated in table tennis, and notched first-round wins before being knocked out of the tournament.

The loss did not put a damper on his Olympic dreams, though, and only spurred him on to work even harder as he strove to win medals. Instead of table tennis, Petkar trained at shot put, precision javelin and slalom racing. But his biggest goal and primary focus was swimming.

The kicker? He practiced each and every one of those sports with only a stump for an arm, and still battling through the pain of his war wounds.

Training nearly every day for the next four years, Murlikant Petkar was once again chosen to be part of the squad India fielded for the Paralympics, this time held in Heidelberg, Germany.

Petkar would participate in Paralympic events for each of the sports he trained it – and make the finals of each. He would finish as a finalist at the men’s precision javelin throw, the javelin throw and slalom, but that was not his biggest achievement that year.

India had never before won individual gold at the Olympics or Paralympics – but all of that changed courtesy Murlikant Petkar, swimming freestyle with only one arm, went on to set a world record at the 1972 Paralympics.

Swimming the 50m freestyle, he finished with a time of 37.33 seconds, winning Gold at the event.

He finished his sporting career with four international swimming medals. Ever since, sadly, he has faded into obscurity, and eventually shifted base to Pune, Maharashtra, where he used his mechanical engineering skills in his job with TELCO.

Although he won India’s first ever Olympic/Paralympic medal and set a world record, Petkar missed out on the glory others after him received – India did not start keeping official records until 1984, and Petkar’s remained unrecognized.

Petkar was felicitated by Rahul Dravid, but has faded into obscurity

Petkar was felicitated last year by Indian cricketing icon Rahul Dravid at the launch of former Indian shuttler Sanjay Sharma’s book on Indian athletes who overcame disability. But barring that one evening, it appears many have forgotten the mammoth achievements, both on the field and off, of a young Indian war hero who gave the country his all.