It’s 2 AM in the morning in India, when Jhandu Kumar entered the record books at Glasgow’s Armadillo Arena. Competing in the men’s heavyweight division of the para powerlifting competition, the 28-year-old lifted 190kg above his chest to claim a bronze – India’s first medal – of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. But for a minor foul in his final attempt of the competition, Jhandu would more than likely have won gold.
He wasn’t thinking about that though as he sat in his wheelchair during the medal ceremony, beaming with pride, tears flowing from his eyes, with precious metal around his neck. Jhandu was likely thinking about how unlikely his journey to the podium of the Commonwealth Games even was.
Not too long ago, early mornings in India began in a very different way for Jhandu.
Growing up in Harnaut, a town in Bihar’s Nalanda district, Jhandu would leave home well before the crack of dawn at 4 AM. “I would get on a shared private van and travel 20 kilometers to the wholesale vegetable market at the town of Bihar Sharif,” he recalled.
For the last one kilometer or so there wasn’t a motor able road. Jhandu, who had lost the use of his lower limbs due to an attack of polio in childhood, would wheel himself on a hand operated tricycle the rest of the way. “I’d go around the market picking out karela (bitter gourd), bhindi (okra) and other green vegetables. I’d collect several dozen kilos of the vegetables and then make the way back to Harnaut,” he said.
There on a pavement, surrounded by other vegetable vendors, Jhandu would start to call for customers. There was no guarantee of profit. Some days ended with a few hundred rupees in hand; others brought losses. But almost every evening ended the same way. “I would close my shop at 4 PM and then I’d go and work out. It was the one thing that made me happy,” Jhandu told Sportstar before heading to Glasgow.
For a long time, the workout was kept hidden. It was the sort of luxury that few felt he could afford.
Certainly not someone named Jhandu Kumar.
Indeed even the name Jhandu – which literally means embarrassment - was given as a pejorative. “My real name was Avinash Kumar. But after I got my attack of polio and lost the use of my legs, a lot of my fathers acquaintances said that I was going to just be a burden. Ki maine papa ka jhand karwa diya (I have brought shame to my father’s name). It slowly became a name that people would call me and by accident it got entered in one of my earliest official documents and then slowly it became an official name,” he recalls.
No one would believe the boy with the crippled legs could dream of a life beyond basic sustenance. At the most, he was expected to join his father’s vegetable selling business, which he did at the age of 10 when he started helping at the family shop. School was far away and work came first.
Sport was never part of the plan.
His first inspiration came from an unlikely source — the film actor Salman Khan. “I think I’d seen the film Dabang when it first got released. And I thought, ‘Wow I also want a physique like that’. I might not have legs, but I can at least build my upper body like Salman bhai,” he recalled.
Armed with enthusiasm but little else, he travelled about a kilometre on a hand-operated tricycle to train in a modest neighbourhood gym that had no coach and little equipment. “You had to learn everything yourself.”
He didn’t even own a mobile phone. Whenever he got the chance, he borrowed someone else’s phone to watch videos of able-bodied powerlifters. At that point he had never even heard of para powerlifting.
Jhandu Kumar’s first inspiration came from an unlikely source — the film actor Salman Khan. | Photo Credit: PTI
Natural talent
Even then, mostly self-trained and with barely an idea of nutrition, it was clear that there was something special about him. “I don’t know if it was because I was always moving around using my arms and shoulders, but I had a really strong upper body. Proper diet is expensive, so I didn’t even have that. I remember when I started going to the gym, I was only about 45kg, but I was lifting 80-90kg in the chest press machine. Later even when I moved to a better-quality gym, I was still lifting more than the boys who didn’t have any disability,” he recalls.
While he loved going to the gym, his family struggled to understand his obsession. “There was pressure from home to sit in the shop,” he said. “There was no encouragement. I don’t blame them. They were wondering what future I had in this.”
A few did believe in his potential.
Encouraged by a coach, Gautam Singh, Jhandu started taking part in powerlifting competitions. Initially not aware of para sports, he competed alongside regular athletes but only in the bench press. He won a district gold in 2019 and then competed at a national event in Jamshedpur.
Although he didn’t win a medal there, by now his performances started catching the attention of coaches and officials in the state para sports federations. “In 2022 I was told to compete at the National Para Powerlifting Championships in Kolkata. At that time, I was so clueless about the rules that I ended up competing in a heavier weight category because I didn’t realise I had to take off my shoes, my jacket and my mobile phone from my pocket,” he said.
Despite competing against lifters heavier than him, he still managed to win a bronze. “I remember I could hardly sleep that night. I felt as if I had won a world medal. But that’s when I first started thinking that I’ve played for Bihar, now I can play for India. I felt if I could win a national medal then maybe I could win an international medal as well someday,” he recalled.
Struggle to train
While his ambitions were growing steadily, he didn’t have to look far to get his dose of reality. Even as he competed at the national level, Jhandu was still waking up before dawn, heading to the vegetable wholesale market at Bihar Sharif to buy produce and then lug it back to Harnaut to sell it. “There was no other choice, and I didn’t feel sorry for myself. It was just what I had to do. But I always looked forward to 4 PM in the evening when I would close the shop and go and train for two and a half hours in the gym. If I was lucky, I would eat a couple of eggs and if I wasn’t then I would train anyway,” he said with a smile.
Even though it earned him a modest income, Jhandu would eventually have to shut his vegetable business after being forced to vacate the spot where he sold his produce because of a government construction project.
With no income, Jhandu borrowed money to buy a battery-operated e-rickshaw to ferry passengers. But driving all day left him too exhausted to train well and the earnings were barely enough to survive. Eventually, he sold the vehicle to pay for his diet before the 2023 National Championships. “I thought if I won a medal at that competition, I might get prize money from the Bihar government to buy another e-rickshaw,” he says.
Instead, his body was broken after being forced to travel to the competition on an unreserved train ticket, and he failed all three lifts. “I was so disappointed. I felt I had nothing left,” he said.
Ironically, that failure became the turning point of his career. National coaches noticed his potential and invited him to join the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence in Gandhinagar. Under the guidance of coach Sachin Chaudhary at first and later veteran coach Rajinder Rahelu, Jhandu’s career took off.
“He always had the potential but at the national camp he got professional coaching and most importantly a proper diet. That has transformed his performances,” said coach Rahelu, the only Indian Para powerlifting medallist at the Paralympics.
In 2025, Jhandu broke the national record with a 205kg lift before improving it to 206kg at the Khelo India Games. The same year he claimed bronze at the World Para Powerlifting World Cup in Beijing and another bronze at the Asia-Oceania Championships, establishing himself as one of India’s leading lifters.
Jhandu had been confident even before heading to the Commonwealth Games. He knew the significance of even making the team. “There aren’t too many athletes from Bihar at the international level. It feels proud that there’s one who worked so hard that he came from nothing and is now at the highest level and getting the chance to represent India,” he said.
At his first Commonwealth Games, he’s done more than make the numbers. Competing at a bodyweight of 72.4kg, he very narrowly missed a third lift of 196kg which would have given him a pDots coefficient (a points formula used in in competitions where para powerlifters of different weights compete together) well over eventual gold medallist Idris Riluwan of Nigeria.
Jhandu will likely have more chances to win bigger medals in the future. “When I started my journey, I couldn’t even dream I would do anything other than sit on a pavement and sell vegetables. But I lifted weights because I loved it. Now my dreams are much bigger. I want to keep winning medals for India. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what you do. If you believe in yourself more than anything and work devotedly, nothing can stop you,” he said.
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Published on Jul 25, 2026