{"id":24758,"date":"2026-07-15T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=24758"},"modified":"2026-07-15T13:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:09:00","slug":"commonwealth-games-2026-jaspreet-kaur-jhandu-kumars-inspiring-para-powerlifting-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=24758","title":{"rendered":"Commonwealth Games 2026: Jaspreet Kaur, Jhandu Kumar&#8217;s Inspiring Para Powerlifting Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"arti_content_n\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><strong>The inspiring journeys of Indian para powerlifters Jaspreet Kaur and Jhandu Kumar, who defied physical and financial adversities to secure their spots at the prestigious Commonwealth Games.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgwidth\" title=\"Jaspreet Kaur\" src=\"https:\/\/im.rediff.com\/sports\/2026\/jul\/15jaspreet-kaur.jpg?w=830&amp;h=1000\" alt=\"Jaspreet Kaur\" style=\"max-width:100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Jaspreet Kaur heads into her maiden appearance at the Commonwealth Games on the back of a national record-breaking 101kg lift in the women&#8217;s 45kg para powerlifting category at the Khelo India Para Games. <span class=\"credit\">Photograph: Khelo India\/X<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"keypoints\">\n<h3>Key Points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Jaspreet Kaur, a former software engineer, transformed her life through para powerlifting after contracting polio, now representing India at the Commonwealth Games.<\/li>\n<li>Jhandu Kumar, who battled poverty and polio, transitioned from selling vegetables to becoming a national record-holding para powerlifter for India.<\/li>\n<li>Both athletes are training under Athens 2004 Paralympic bronze medallist Rajinder Singh Rahelu, who expresses high hopes for their performance.<\/li>\n<li>Jaspreet Kaur holds a national record with a 101kg lift in the women&#8217;s 45kg category and won bronze at the Asia-Oceania Open Championships.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>After graduating from one of India&#8217;s National Institutes of Technology, Jaspreet Kaur seemed destined for a successful career as a software engineer. But for the Bathinda native, who contracted polio at the age of three, long hours behind a desk took a heavy toll on her body, leading to excessive weight gain and worsening mobility.<\/p>\n<p>Determined to reclaim her health, she discovered an unlikely calling &#8212; and a new purpose &#8212; in para powerlifting.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Today, the 32-year-old is part of India&#8217;s contingent for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She heads into her maiden appearance on the back of a national record-breaking 101kg lift in the women&#8217;s 45kg para powerlifting category at the Khelo India Para Games and hopes to carry that form onto the international stage.<\/p>\n<h2>Jaspreet Kaur&#8217;s Journey: From Software Engineer To Powerlifter<\/h2>\n<p>Currently training under Athens 2004 Paralympic bronze medallist Rajinder Singh Rahelu at the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) in Gandhinagar, Jaspreet is confident of making an impression.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The kind of training I am getting gives me a lot of confidence. I believe I will deliver a good performance,&#8221; she said during an interaction from Gandhinagar.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on her journey, Jaspreet, who wears a calliper on one leg, said her sedentary job after completing her M.Tech accelerated her weight gain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because of polio and limited mobility, my weight had gone up to nearly 80kg. It was putting tremendous pressure on my other leg, and even my spine had started tilting. I knew I had to do something.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So I quit my job and joined a gym simply to get fit. While working out, I started exploring how I could become a para athlete, and that&#8217;s when I discovered powerlifting,&#8221; she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>The decision transformed her life. She shed nearly 40kg in just 18 months and soon began making her mark on the national circuit. After breaking the national record with a 101kg lift, she went on to win a bronze medal at the Asia-Oceania Open Championships in Bangkok earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I never imagined that a journey which began with the simple goal of losing weight would take me to the Commonwealth Games and even the Asian Games,&#8221; said the bespectacled lifter.<\/p>\n<p>Jaspreet credits her family for standing by her throughout the journey. Her father works as a cashier in a private bank, while her mother is a homemaker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their unwavering support has been my biggest strength. It has helped me turn a fight for fitness into a journey of representing India on the international stage,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<h2>Jhandu Kumar&#8217;s Path: Overcoming Poverty Through Sport<\/h2>\n<p>For much of his childhood, Jhandu Kumar&#8217;s world revolved around the pavements of Harnaut in Bihar&#8217;s Nalanda district, where he helped his parents sell vegetables to make ends meet. Struck by polio at the age of five, he grew up battling disability and poverty before discovering para powerlifting &#8212; a sport that transformed his life.<\/p>\n<p>Now training in Gandhinagar, Kumar has emerged as one of India&#8217;s leading para powerlifters, setting the national record in the men&#8217;s 72kg category and earning a place on the international stage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have seen some really difficult days&#8230; from selling potatoes and onions to driving an e-rickshaw during Covid-19 pandemic,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Kumar&#8217;s sporting journey began in the gym between 2010 and 2012, when he was simply trying to build strength. He experimented with shot put and javelin before learning about para powerlifting.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I started training with a lifting belt and gradually crossed the 100kg mark. My coach encouraged me by entering me in able-bodied competitions, including the Bihar State Games in Sasaram in 2018. I enjoyed competing and wanted to make Bihar proud,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>His biggest challenge, however, was outside the gym. Meeting the nutritional demands of the sport was beyond his family&#8217;s means. To fund his diet, Kumar ran a small vegetable business, travelling nearly 20km to markets despite not even owning a wheelchair.<\/p>\n<p>When that failed, he borrowed money from friends to buy an e-rickshaw, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to derail those plans as well.<\/p>\n<h2>Training Under a Paralympic Legend<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;I eventually sold the e-rickshaw and came to Delhi, where I met Rajinder Singh Rahelu sir. Even though I failed all three of my lifts initially, he believed in me. I am where I am today because of his support,&#8221; Kumar said.<\/p>\n<p>Rahelu has high hopes for Kumar&#8217;s Commonwealth Games campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am confident he can even win the gold medal,&#8221; said the former Paralympic medallist, recalling that he continued to believe in Kumar despite his three failed lifts during their first meeting because he recognised in him the hunger to succeed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rediff.com\/sports\/report\/adversity-to-ambition-jaspreet-jhandu-chase-cwg-glory\/20260715.htm\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inspiring journeys of Indian para powerlifters Jaspreet Kaur and Jhandu Kumar, who defied physical and financial adversities to secure their spots at the prestigious Commonwealth Games. IMAGE: Jaspreet Kaur heads into her maiden appearance at the Commonwealth Games on the back of a national record-breaking 101kg lift in the women&#8217;s 45kg para powerlifting category [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":993,"featured_media":24759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-powerlifting-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Commonwealth Games 2026: Jaspreet Kaur, Jhandu Kumar&#039;s Inspiring Para Powerlifting Journey - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=24758\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commonwealth Games 2026: Jaspreet Kaur, Jhandu Kumar&#039;s Inspiring Para Powerlifting Journey - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The inspiring journeys of Indian para powerlifters Jaspreet Kaur and Jhandu Kumar, who defied physical and financial adversities to secure their spots at the prestigious Commonwealth Games. 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