India's golden girl Avani Lekhara believes that her gold medal at the Paris Paralympics has "broken the barrier" for women in the country.
The 22-year-old successfully defended her gold medal in the women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 final on Friday and also created a new Paralympics record by improving her personal best. She has become the first Indian woman to successfully defend her gold medal at the Paralympics.
"I was just thinking of doing the best that I can do that day," Avani told reporters after becoming the first Indian woman to win two Paralympics gold medals.
"I am happy that I was able to win the gold for my country. It broke the barriers for other women in the country, they can look up and see 'okay, women can also win gold in India', and I am grateful that I was the first one to achieve that," she said.
Avani's campaign in Paris is far from over as she is still in contention for more medals in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 and mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 categories respectively.
What stood out the most about Avani's achievement was that she overcame gallbladder surgery in March to rewrite history books in Paris.
The surgery had put Avani out of action for months and her team worked tirelessly during her rehab to get her back to the shooting range.
"I had a surgery in March and I was off the range, I was not practising. … mentally (it) hampered me because I was not training months away from the Paralympics," Avani said of her surgery.
"Even though it's a small surgery, a lot of core muscles weren't working the way they were before and so I had to work on that more. My team worked heavily to get me back on track for Paris," she said while lauding the painstaking efforts of her team members.
