P.T.Usha

P.T.Usha was upset by the sub-standard accommodation given to her at the 49th National Open Athletics Meet. The officials of the Madhya Pradesh Athletics Federation met Usha after the uproar to appease her and the state government asked its Sports Director to probe the incident.

The initials P.T stands for Payyoli Tevaraparampil, her family names according to the traditional naming system. She was born to Paithal and Lakshmi 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.Intially she was awarded with Rs.250 per month by the state government.

Her association with O.M. Nambiar, an athletics coach, helped her to scale new heights in athletics. Usha made her international performance at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 but she excels into the limelight in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, winning the silver in the 100 m and 200 m event. At the Asian Meet in Jakarta in 1985 Usha proved herself as the Asian sprint queen with five gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay as well a bronze in the 100m relay. In the 10th Asian Games held at Seoul in 1986, P. T. Usha won 4 gold and 1 silver medals in the track and field events.By 1986, the Los Angeles Olympics, she had improved massively; 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.

In the next few years age started taking a charge on Usha and in 1990 she decided to retire after managing only silver at the Asian Games in Beijing. In 1991, she married V. Srinivasan, and their son Ujjwal was born the following year. She again returned at the Hiroshima Asiad at the age of 33 and won silver in the 400m relay. Her last international appearance was at the Asian Meet in Fukuoka, Japan in 1998. She managed to shock some of the younger participants by winning gold in the 4x100m relay, silver in the 400m relay and a bronze each in the 200m and 400m.

P.T. Usha was named ‘sportsperson of the century’ by the Indian Olympic Association, and she is the Indian still with most international track and field medals. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1983 and the Padma Shree in 1985. Usha has won 101 international medals so far. She is employed as an officer in the Southern Railways.

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