Aruna Tanwar, India’s sole representative in para taekwondo, displayed indomitable grit and determination despite suffering an injury at the start of her round of 16 contest against Turkey’s Nurcihan Ekinci in women’s K 44-47kg category of the Paris Paralympics on Thursday.
Despite sustaining the injury, Tanwar refused to give up and continued to fight on one leg, battling through tears to go down fighting in the contest that eventually went in favour of Ekinci 19-0. K44 category includes athletes who have impairments in one arm above the elbow.
Aruna hurt her leg a minute into the contest and as her right knee buckled she fell onto the mat. The Indian clutched onto her right leg and writhed in pain as the medical staff attended to her. She was hardly able to stand or put any weight on her right leg. But amidst tears, she chose to fight out the rest of the bout.
After suffering the injury, Aruna, naturally was no match to her Turkish opponent, who garnered points at will in the five-minute round. Ekinci scored two points from body kick nine times during the contest while the Indian also conceded one penalty point (gam-jeom).
Aruna has battled multiple injuries throughout her career. She had to stop competing in the quarterfinal repechage bout at the Tokyo Paralympics due to a hairline fracture. More recently, she fractured her right foot two months before the Asian Para Games, but she still competed and won bronze.
Born with only three fingers on each hand, and arms weren’t fully formed, Aruna started learning taekwondo when she was 8 and she competed in non-para events until 2017.
In 2021, para taekwondo made its debut at the Tokyo Paralympics. For each gender, athletes will participate in five different weight divisions. Para taekwondo bouts are one-round competitions that can go up to five minutes. One key difference with the able-bodied Olympic Games is that kicks to the head and punches are not allowed because not all athletes can block in the same way.