Manasi Girishchandra Joshi a name that should have been as famous as P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, but unfortunately never got much deserving media attention. The World Para-Badminton Champion Manasi Joshi’s story is something that you need to read to be inspired.
Just over a month ago, she won the gold medal of the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships. To be precise, it was the day before PV Sindhu won the World Championships.
Some say losing your body part after an accident is tragic. However, here is a 30-year-old Manasi who proves that it’s not about losing your body part, but losing the willpower to overcoming it that makes it painful.
Although Manasi took to the sport early but never dreamed of being a world champion. She was more focused on her studies and never had the ambition to take up badminton as a profession. So how did she end up taking it then?
Inspiring story Of Manasi Joshi
Yes, I would never call it a tragic story, though she had to lose a leg, the accident couldn’t do away with her willpower. An electronic engineer by profession, her journey to win the Para-Badminton World Championships was not a tranquil tale.
Manasi had started playing badminton at the age of 6. She used to play badminton with her father and had also played few matches at the district level.
As usual, she was on her way to the office on a busy Mumbai street in December 2011 when disaster struck. She was hit by a car and had to have her left leg amputated.
What Manasi Joshi did across the subsequent eight years was fight the misfortune with such extraordinary resilience that she became a world champion.
Within five months of the accident, she was back on her foot and to office. However, she began getting recognised when she started winning the titles in corporate tournaments. Though it didn’t have the level of the game, she was happy about being able to play and used it as part of her rehab programme.
Tournament update: Wonderful few days at the BWF Para-badminton World Championships. Stoked to have won the Gold with exactly #1YearToGo for #Tokyo2020 Paralympics.
Also, PV Sindhu, you are GOAT! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/njB3XhNcVP
— Manasi Nayana Joshi (@joshimanasi11) August 25, 2019
In 2014 she won silver in the National-level tournament after losing to Arjuna awardee Parul Parmar and was suggested for the international event in Spain.
In the following year 2015, she represented India in the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships, England. It was a memorable match as she was facing the former world champions alongside her partner Rakesh Pandey (Mixed doubles).
In 2018 she met chief national coach P. Gopichand, and that seemed to change her life. She had practised alongside P.V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal during her training session in Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (Hyderabad). From then, she has stepped towards her journey of success.
The Journey of Manasi Joshi teaches us no matter what odd’s you face in life; you always have a second chance to catch hold of it. She made her disability into her strength, never turned back and gave her all to become the World Para-Badminton Champion.
