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Ahead of the 2016 Rio Paralympics, British television network Channel 4 aired an advert titled “We’re the Redefining Superhumans.” It’s a theme you’ll often hear echoed as the Paris Paralympics begins—these athletes being labeled as Redefining ‘Superhuman. However, this label misses the mark entirely. In popular comic culture, superhumans are either born with special abilities or gain them through some sort of genetic experiment or freak accident. There’s an element of luck, of circumstance, in acquiring these abilities that surpass the ordinary human condition.
None of that applies to Paralympians, and calling them Redefining superhuman does them a disservice. Peter Parker didn’t suffer from polio as a child, ending up in a wheelchair. He didn’t grow up in a remote village in rural Gujarat, being told, “You’re a girl, and you can’t achieve anything. What will you do when you grow up?” He didn’t rely on his guardians to carry him everywhere. Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel did. She endured all of that and still became India’s most decorated table tennis player.
Redefining Superhuman from Wheelchair to World Stage: The Remarkable Journey of Bhavina Patel
Her rise was no accident. To go from being confined to a wheelchair to excelling in a sport that requires constant side-to-side movement, where footwork is replaced by stretching from a seated position, and Redefining superhuman demands a level of determination beyond anything a radioactive spider could offer.
Consider what Paralympians accomplish, the obstacles they’ve overcome, and the extraordinary feats they achieve. Imagine, for example, bench-pressing any amount of weight without being able to drive through your feet, without the stability of your lower body. Now imagine being a 48kg woman bench-pressing 94kg with your legs (which you cannot use) strapped to the bench, lifting this immense weight using only your upper body strength. That’s what Sakina Khatun did to win the 2024 national championship.
Afflicted by polio at a young age, Sakina underwent four surgeries to survive it. She took up swimming as part of her rehabilitation, which eventually led her to powerlifting—a sport where she faced widespread criticism that it was only for men, and that it would make her shoulders too muscular. Today, she is a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, an Asian Para Games silver medalist, a two-time Paralympian, and she has the shoulders of a warrior goddess.
Unyielding Determination: How Athletes Like Sakina Khatun and Sumit Antil Defy Limits
Or think about being a soldier in the Indian Army, and one day, during an operation along the LOC, you lose a limb to a landmine blast. They amputate your left leg from the thigh down. You recover from that, from the depression that comes with realizing you’ll never be the same, pull yourself out of the administrative role you thought would define the rest of your life, and become an elite para-athlete.
The mental fortitude required to go from peak physical condition to losing a limb, and then to fully embrace that new reality, is immense. Hokato Hotozhe Sema did exactly that, becoming a top shot putter. With his amputated leg strapped to his seat, he throws that iron ball over 14 meters at his best—a remarkable feat considering this is a sport where power is typically generated by an explosive turn, with the legs driving force through the upper body. Sema lacks that but enters Paris as an Asian Para Games bronze medalist.
Sumit Antil was 17 when a speeding truck collided with his bike, leading to the amputation of his left leg. A few years later, in college, he was introduced to para-athletics. Just six years after the accident, he was winning Paralympic gold in Tokyo, breaking the world record three times along the way. He’s also a two-time world champion and won Asian Para Games gold last year with an astonishing throw of 73.29 meters—the best ever by any para javelin thrower. To put that into perspective, this throw would have placed him 7th in the recently held Federation Cup won by Neeraj Chopra. It’s simply mind-boggling.
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