PT Usha – A woman of substance

“In my opinion, happiness is nothing more than satisfaction through work, thoughts and the fulfillment of our mission and vision”

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (born June 27, 1964), better known as PT Usha, is the retired queen of Indian athletics for two decades. Popularly known as ‘Payyoli Express’, she has won 110 national and international medals and awards throughout her career, including 13 gold medals at Asian Championships and Asian Games and a total of 33 international medals. The ‘Queen of Indian Athletics’ won 5 gold medals and 1 bronze medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1985. Winning 6 medals in the same event by a single athlete was a new record for that time. During that year, she was awarded as the best female athlete at the meeting of Asian athletes in Jakarta. She won medals in the 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles and 4*400m relay at the Seoul Asian Games and got 3 silver medals at the Beijing Asian Games. The ‘Sprint Queen of Asia’ in 1982, she took a silver medal in the 100 and 200 meters running in New Delhi, she said. He missed out on an Olympic bronze medal by 1/100 of a second at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He participated in every Olympic Games from 1980 to 1996 except the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Throughout his illustrious career , has won 30 international awards for his contribution to Athletics. He received the Arjuna, Padmashri award, the Adidas Golden shoe award for the best athlete in 1985 at the Seoul Asian Games, the award for the Best Athlete in Asia in the years 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1989 and won the World Trophy for the best athlete in 1985 and 1986. She was awarded the D.Litt (honoris causa) by the University of Calicut in 2018. She was the youngest Indian spinster to compete in the Olympic event at the age of 16 and the first Indian woman to reach the end of Olympic events at the age of twenty.

After retiring, she is a committee director of the Indian Talent organization, the organization holds the National Indian Talent Olympics Competition in various schools across the country. She also runs the Usha Athletics School at Koyilandy in Kerala, India to train girls from all over India and trains them for free with the sole aim of winning an Olympic medal for India. The Usha School has 18 gills among the 10-12 year old age group; it is completely free and provides free training, accommodation, accommodation and food to young athletes. Due to lack of funds, she trains them on a mud track as she does not have funds to put on a synthetic track. 6 of her 18 students represent India in various formats.

When some film producer meets her or approaches her to make a biography of her life, she replies: “I want to bring an Olympic medal in athletics to India, through my students. Only then will my story be complete.” PT Usha, a woman of substance has lived her life to the fullest with full commitment and dedication and she knows how to give back to the community.