Para jumper Shital Mahajan believes the sky is no limit as she puts India on the adventure sports map
Para jumper Shital Mahajan believes the sky is no limit as she puts India on the adventure sports map
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She is 'poles' apart from anyone you might have known. Pune girl Shital Mahajan was only 22 when she jumped
2,400 feet above the North Pole as an amateur para jumper without any professional experience.
A year later, she did an accelerated free fall jump off 14,000 feet above the South Pole, where temperatures range from -50u00b0C to -40u00b0C. With each of her feats, she set a world record, putting India firmly on the map of adventure sports.
But her journey from Pune's suburbs to the Poles, was not an easy one. She faced stiff opposition for her "expensive, fancy" sport from her middle-class family, skeptical sponsors and lackadaisical sports bodies.
It was only her grit and determination that helped her make her dream come true. Shital (28), says, "I wanted to set a world record. One retired defence expert spurred my interest in para jumping and I decided to take some training and jump off the North Pole."
The first civilian to receiveu00a0 the National Adventure Tenzing Norgay Award (air category), Shital who has taken a short sabbatical from her work because of motherhood, says that her work has not ended yet. "I want to popularise adventure sports in India. There are hardly any facilities or training centres for people like us. I want to open an academy for this sport,"u00a0 ends the courageous jumper.
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