Murlikant Petkar, an Army Soldier Paralysed in the 1965 War, Won India's First Paralympic Gold in the 50 m Freestyle at Heidelberg in August 1972, in a Reported World Record 37.33 Seconds

Murlikant Petkar won India’s first Paralympic gold medal at Heidelberg in August 1972, taking the men’s 50 m freestyle in swimming. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Forbes India both give his time as 37.33 seconds and call it a world record. He was a soldier in the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) of the Indian Army, paralysed from the waist down in the 1965 war with Pakistan, and he had learned to swim as part of his rehabilitation in a naval hospital in Mumbai. DD India reports the win as the first individual gold medal by an Indian at the Olympics or the Paralympics.

Heidelberg’s Games ran from 2 to 11 August 1972. According to the IPC, 921 athletes (653 men and 268 women) from 41 countries took part in 10 sports. Munich, which had hosted the Olympics that summer, was not available, because its Olympic Village had been converted into private apartments, and Heidelberg invited the organisers to use the University’s Institute for Physical Training.

A boy in Sangli and a homecoming in Karad

Petkar was born on 1 November at Peth Islampur in Maharashtra’s Sangli district. Sources differ on the year: 1947 in the IPC feature and the IANS report, 1944 in The Bridge.

At eight, he told Forbes India, he stood in the crowd at the Karad railway station when K D Jadhav returned from the 1952 Helsinki Olympics with a wrestling bronze. He decided then that he would win a medal for the country as well. Wrestling came first, at the training centre Jadhav had set up in the village. Later he moved to Pune, where an aunt got him into the Army’s Boys Battalion. He tried hockey there and moved to boxing on a senior’s advice. Both Forbes India and IANS say he went to the International Services Sports Meet in Tokyo in 1964.

The 1965 war and nine bullets

IANS and Forbes India both say he took nine bullets in the 1965 war, and both say one stayed in his spine. All the accounts say an attack from the air caused the injuries and left him paraplegic. They differ on where it happened:

• IANS (Business Standard, 2018) places him with his unit in the Sialkot sector in September 1965, and says he does not recall the exact day.
• The IPC feature says the camp he was visiting in Jammu and Kashmir came under aerial attack, after his commandant arranged the trip as a reward for the Tokyo result. It adds that an Army vehicle ran over him in the confusion.
• DD India says it was an attack on an Army camp in Srinagar.

Petkar’s own account to IANS is of confusion when a shout went up and some of the men, half asleep, thought they were being called for tea. The length of his recovery is also reported differently. Forbes India says he was in a coma for two years. IANS says he was bedridden for over two years and lost his memory for a time.

Learning to swim at INHS Asvini

After the injury he was moved to INHS Asvini, the Navy hospital in Mumbai, then called Bombay. A physiotherapist there asked him to take up swimming as part of his rehabilitation, the IPC feature says. Forbes India adds that the doctors told him swimming would build his strength, that four people wheeled him to the hospital pool each day, and that by his own count he learned to swim in less than a month and was good at it within three to four months.

Selection for India followed quickly. On a visit to the Stoke Mandeville International Games in England before the 1968 Paralympics in Tel Aviv, the IPC feature says, he and the rest of the Indian team saw dedicated facilities, wheelchairs and coaching for disabled athletes for the first time. He competed at two Paralympics, Tel Aviv in 1968 and Heidelberg in 1972. Before he was discharged from the Army in 1969, IANS reports, he won Maharashtra state titles in 1967 in shot put, javelin, discus, table tennis and archery.

At the 3rd Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Edinburgh, which IANS dates to 1970, he won gold in the 50 m freestyle, silver in the javelin and bronze in the shot put. The IPC feature gives the same three results.

Heidelberg, August 1972

Others paid for the trip to Germany. Former India cricket captain Vijay Merchant headed a non-governmental organisation that supported disabled people, the IPC feature says, and it bought Petkar’s tickets.

According to the IPC feature, he set a world record in the heats, in his first race. In his words quoted there: “I was always confident of my abilities and gave my best in the first race itself and set a world record.” For the final he wanted a middle lane, the third or fourth, and drew the third. He won the gold medal. Both the IPC feature and Forbes India give 37.33 seconds as the record time, and the IPC says he clocked it in the course of the competition, so the sources do not settle whether it was swum in the heat or the final.

Accounts also differ on the number of records. DD India says he set three world records while winning gold. The IPC and Forbes India name one, the 37.33. Petkar also competed in the javelin and the precision javelin at Heidelberg and reached the finals in both, the IPC says.

Watching the Tricolour go up after his win remains the happiest moment of his life, he told Forbes India. Per the IPC, he became an overnight star, that Indian spectators in Heidelberg were delighted, and that he was given a new wheelchair, clothes and cash.

Competing until 1982

From 1968 to 1982, Forbes India says, he took part in international events in the javelin, the precision javelin and the slalom. Two more results from those years come from the IPC feature: the General Championship Cup at the Stoke Mandeville International Paraplegic Meets for five consecutive years, 1969 to 1973, and a further world record in the 50 m swimming at the FESPIC Games in Hong Kong in 1982. IANS reports that the Maharashtra government gave him its Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1975. After the Army he worked in Pune for Telco, according to IANS.

The honours that came late

In 1982, IANS reports, the government rejected Petkar’s claim for an Arjuna Award. After the Padma Shri he told the agency, “I did feel disheartened when I was denied an Arjuna Award on the ground that I was a disabled person.” He said he stored his certificates and medals and decided not to apply for any award again.

On 25 January 2018 the Ministry of Home Affairs announced the Padma Awards. Its list of 85 awards approved that year includes “Shri Murlikant Petkar”, field Sports-Swimming, state Maharashtra, under the Padma Shri. A call from the government on that date told him he had been shortlisted, IANS reports. President Ram Nath Kovind presented the award at Rashtrapati Bhavan in March 2018. With crutches strapped to his forearms, Petkar could not salute, IANS says, and greeted the President in military style instead. The Padma Shri came almost 50 years after the gold, Forbes India notes. Punekar News reports that the EME Corps also honoured him at its 81st Corps Day.

His son Arjun, who works at an ammunition factory, put up a website on his father’s career, and the BBC later ran a story, Forbes India says.

The film, Paris and the lifetime Arjuna

India’s Paralympic medals have grown since 1972. At Paris in 2024 the country won 29 medals, seven of them gold, according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. India’s first individual gold at an Olympic Games came in 2008, when Olympedia records that Abhinav Bindra won the 10 m air rifle. Petkar’s gold is thirty-six years older than that.

His life reached a wider audience through the Hindi film Chandu Champion, directed by Kabir Khan with Kartik Aaryan as Petkar and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The date of 14 June 2024 was announced in July 2023, and a Gulf News review dated 14 June 2024 confirms the release. After his Arjuna Award, Petkar thanked Nadiadwala, Khan and Aaryan, News Karnataka reports.

On 2 January 2025 the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2024. Petkar and the athlete Sucha Singh were named for the Arjuna Award (Lifetime), which the Ministry says honours sportspersons who contributed through their performance and continue to promote sport after retiring. The same list gave a Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna to the para-athlete Praveen Kumar. At the ceremony on 17 January 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, PTI reported, Petkar, then 80, walked up to President Droupadi Murmu on crutches to receive the award.