WHO'S WHO?- P.T USHA

The queen of Indian track and field for two decades, P.T. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. The initials stand for Payyoli Tevaraparampil, her family names according to the traditional naming system in many parts of South India. She was born in 1964 in the Kerala village of Meladi-Payyoli near Calicut, afflicted by ill health and poverty. In 1976 the Kerala State Government started a Sports School for women, and Usha was chosen to represent her district, at a cost of Rs. 250 per month paid by the state.

In 1979 she participated in the National School Games, where she was noticed by O. M. Nambiar, who coached her through most of the rest of her career. India Today describes the athletic situation in 1979 as a time when 'athletics was very much a male sport and track-suited women a rarity'.
Her first international performance came in the 1982 Asian Games. By 1986, the Los Angeles Olympics, she had improved tremendously; she won the 400 m heats, and missed getting India's first track-and-field bronze medal in the 400m finals by 1/100 sec, in a dramatic photo finish. She had set an Asian best, 55.42 seconds, for the event which still stands today.
 
1986 and the Seoul Asian Games: Usha won golds in the 200 m, 400 m, 400 m hurdles and 4x400m relay. The Seoul Olympics in 1988 proved a disappointment, however, with Usha unable to make the finals in her best events. This provoked much finger-pointing and breast-beating in the Indian sports community, with much of the blame being directed towards P.T. Usha to her dismay. However, she was determined not to be discouraged, and won four golds and two silvers at the Asian Track Federation meet in Delhi, 1989.
 
Having proved her mettle, she decided to retire from athletics, but was lured back to participate in the Beijing Asian Games, where she won a silver medal (a poor haul by the standards her fans had come to expect) in spite of her limited preparation.
 
In 1991, she married V. Srinivasan, and their son Ujjwal was born the following year. Although she enjoyed domesticity and motherhood, she was drawn back to athletics, and astonished the country by winning bronze medals in the 200 m and 400 m at the Asian Track Federation meet in Japan, 1999. And, silencing her critics, at the age of 34 she set a new national record for the 200m, improving on her own previous record.
P.T. Usha was named sportsperson of the century by the Indian Olympic Association, and is still the Indian with most international track and field medals.

She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1983, and the Padma Shree in 1985. You can walk on P.T. Usha Road in Cochin. Her autobiography, Golden Girl, was published by Penguin in 1987.