Sharmila Dhankhar has won gold for India in the women’s para shot put F57 event at the Commonwealth Games. She threw the shot put 9.81 metres, her best distance this season. This is India’s second gold medal at the ongoing Games. Weightlifter Mira Bai Chanu had won the first gold on Sunday in the 48kg category.
Fellow Indian athlete Shilpa K. Shaila also won bronze in the same event. India now has 10 medals in total and sits eighth on the medal table. Australia leads the table with 59 medals, including 26 golds.
A Childhood Marked By Polio And Poverty
Sharmila comes from Chitrauli village in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district. She contracted polio at the age of two, which affected one of her legs. Her father was a small farmer, and her mother is visually impaired. The family could not afford proper treatment for her condition. Money was tight, and Sharmila was married off at a young age.
Her first marriage did not last. At 26, her husband asked her to leave their home. By then, she had two daughters. She returned to her parents’ house with both children. Two years later, she married Ajit, an electrician from Rewari. He read a newspaper article about para athletes and encouraged her to try the sport. He has supported her at every step since.
From Losing A Job To Finding A Purpose
In 2018, Sharmila got a job as Haryana’s first woman bus conductor during a strike by Haryana Roadways staff. People congratulated her for nearly ten days. But once the strike ended, she lost the job just as quickly as she had got it. The setback hurt her deeply. It also pushed her to find something no one could take away from her.
That search led her to para athletics. At 34, she began training in the seated shot put F57 category under coaches Tekchand and Devendra in Rewari. The F57 category includes athletes with impairment in their lower limbs or reduced muscle strength.
Home Sold, Spirit Unbroken: The Road To Gold
Training came at a heavy cost. In 2023, Sharmila and her family sold their house to pay for her training expenses. They moved into a rented home, but she did not stop practising. Her hard work paid off gradually. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, she finished fourth in the shot put event. She kept improving after that, and put in a strong performance at the World Championships held in Delhi in September 2025.
Her daughters are following a similar sporting path. Her elder daughter, Anuj, 17, competes in javelin throw, while her younger daughter, Lakshmi, 13, practises long jump. Both compete at the state level.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini has congratulated Sharmila on her gold medal win.
Why This Matters
Sharmila’s win is more than a medal. It reflects a system where athletes from low-income families often fund their own training, sometimes at the cost of basic security like housing. Her story also highlights India’s growing strength in para sports, an area that has seen a steady rise in international medals over the past few Games. For a country working to widen access to sports infrastructure for people with disabilities, wins like this bring attention to both the achievement and the gaps that still need to be fixed.
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