“Winning a medal was a dream come true”: Tejalben Damor’s rise at the Asian Para Games

Tejalben Damor opts to stay away from the glamour and clamour of social media. But unlike most of us, who usually do it for a digital detox, she is compelled to do so for the sake of the vision in her right eye.

Tejal was just one and a half years old when she damaged the cornea of her left eye and lost vision completely.

She hails from a small village in the tribal-dominated Dahod district in the eastern part of Gujarat. A majority of the population in the area makes ends meet via the agricultural sector.

It was no different for Tejal’s parents, who could barely make ends meet. Leaving their two daughters alone on the field to fend for themselves was a way of survival.

On one such mundane day when the two sisters were busy playing, the elder one accidentally dropped a stick. It landed flush on Tejal’s eye.

“It damaged my cornea forever,” recalled Tejal in a conversation with The Bridge at the SAI campus here in Gandhinagar.

“Doctors said my eyes would never recover.”

While it was a crushing blow for the Damor household, what came was even more challenging.

As Tejal grew older, she slowly started losing vision in the other eye as well.

“We’ve consulted doctors, who’ve all arrived at the consensus that surgeries would be of no use,” she said.

“I’ve to take a lot of precautions. I’m not allowed to use my mobile phone or watch television for a long time so as not to strain my eye further.

“I have vision in only that eye. I can’t afford to lose that too,” she added.

Despite the unfair curveballs life has thrown at her, Tejal continues to push through. At the recently concluded 2026 Asian Para Games, she bagged two medals – a silver and a bronze in women’s 400m T12 and 200m T12 respectively.

“It was my first Asian Para Games,” gleamed Tejal. “To win a medal was a dream come true.”

In Nagoya, she, initially struggled to acclimatise. The weather was vastly different from the daily heat she is used to in Gandhinagar. The food was different and so was the timezone.

“The weather in India is hot. It was cooler there, so it took a bit of time to adjust. I struggled to adjust to the time zone as well, but ultimately we found hacks like sleeping a bit in the day,” she said.

“Rest since it was a competition, the focus was on winning the medal for the efforts that we’ve put in. There was nothing else on mind,” she added.

For Tejal, whose pet event is the quartermile, having to compete in the 200m sprint first was a blessing in disguise.

“400m is my main event. But since I had to compete first in 200m, the mindset was that if I do well, I can just enjoy my 400m run,” she revealed.

For Tejal, who took to para sports only in 2022 after noticing posters of Bhavina Patel with the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics medal, the double podium at the 2026 Asian Games is just the beginning of what promises to transform into one of India’s best-ever careers in visually impaired sports.