Prachi Yadav

Some Lesser Known Facts About Prachi Yadav

• Prachi Yadav is an Indian para canoe athlete. She became the first athlete from India to compete in an international para canoeing event when she represented India at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020. She won a bronze medal at the Paracanoe World Cup in Poland.

• Prachi began professional paracanoeing training in 2018.

• In 2019, at the 29th National Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe Championships in Delhi, she competed and won two medals: a silver medal in the VL2 Women category and a gold medal in the KL2 Women category.

• She was placed second in both the KL2 Women and VL2 Women categories at the 2020 National Paracanoe Competition & Paracanoe Classification, which was held in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh.

• In 2021, she won a gold medal at the 14th National Paracanoe Championships in Bhopal, India, in both the KL2 Women and VL2 Women categories.

• In 2022, she won a silver medal in the KL2 Women category and a gold medal in the VL2 Women category at the 15th National Paracanoe Championships and Paracanoe Classification.

• At the 16th National Paracanoe Championships held in Bhopal, India, she won gold in both the KL2 Women and VL2 Women categories.

• Prachi placed eighth in the 2019 ICF World Championships, held in Germany.

• In May 2022, Prachi won a gold medal in the VL2 Women category of the Asian Canoe Para Qualifiers for the Asian Para Games, which were held in Rayong, Thailand, in which she covered a distance of 200 metres in 01:07.200.

• In the same year, she won a bronze medal in the 200-meter VL2 Women category of the ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Cup, which was held in Poznan, Poland. The time taken by her to complete the 200-meter race was 01:04.71.

  

• In 2023, she won a gold medal in the KL2 Women and VL2 Women categories at the 3rd Asian Paracanoe Championship, which was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Her time for covering a 500-meter distance in the KL2 category was 02:38.441, and in the VL2 category, it was 02:55.482.

• At the 3rd Asian Paracanoe Championship, she won a silver medal in the KL2 Women category 200-meter event, which she finished in 01:00.725 and a gold medal in the VL2 Women category 200-meter event, which she finished in 01:11.259.

  

• She competed for India at the 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, in October 2023. There, she won a gold medal in the KL2 Women category and a silver medal in the VL2 Women category.

• Before switching to para canoeing in 2018, Prachi Yadav was a national-level para swimmer.

• She switched to para canoeing as per the recommendation of her swimming coach, Virender Kumar Dabas. Her lower body movements are restricted due to a disability below her waist. In an interview, while talking about the switch in her career, she said,
  

  Virender Kumar Dabas sir from LNIPE, Gwalior asked me to switch to paracanoe as I got long arms. The decision worked.”

• Prachi receives training in para canoeing at the Lower Lake in Bhopal, India.

• The first boat made specifically for an Indian para-canoeist was created by Mayank Thakur, the chairperson of the India Para Kayaking and Canoeing Association, and it was used by Prachi during her early training sessions.

• She made history in 2020 when she qualified for the Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, by becoming the first-ever Indian Paracanoe athlete at the Summer Paralympics.

• Prachi Yadav is one of the many athletes under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). ^[1]PIB.gov

• In an interview, while talking about her struggles as a para-athlete, she said,
  

  When I began in sports, my relatives would say what can she do? She can’t do anything. She can’t even ride a cycle, she can’t walk. When my father first went to get me admitted to a school, they refused to accept me saying, how will your daughter handle being here? Who will support here?”

• She regularly exercises at the gym and often posts about her workout regime on her Instagram account. ^[2]Instagram – Prachi Yadav