High jumper Girisha won silver at Paralympic 2012, London

High jumper Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, India won a silver medal (F42 single leg, amputations minimal disability category) at London Paralympic Games. To make this happen, he cleared his career best 1.74 m high jump. He managed to secure the first medal for the country in this category of game. Girisha won eighth Paralympic medal for India and is the first to do so in the high jump category and third Indian to claim silver in the event. He is a man with polio impaired left leg. To win the medal he used the scissor kick technique.

Girisha, who belongs to a farming family from a small village in Hassan District in South Karnataka was forced to compete against the able-bodied athletes at different levels of competition because of the lack of information about any such event like paralympics for the disabled.  

Sports minister, Ajay Maken declared that the medal winners in the Paralymipic will be awarded with the same cash reward as that of the Olympians i.e. 50 lakhs for gold, 30 lakhs for silver and 20 lakhs for Bronze.