How a truck accident led army man Prem Kumar Ale to para badminton

Prem Kumar Ale joined the Indian army as a Havildar in 2005. Four years later, he met with a serious accident.

Ale was reporting to his duty on a bicycle when a truck hit him from behind. He spent the next two months unconscious.

Two more months down the line, the doctors revealed he had sustained a serious spinal cord injury. Ale would never walk again.

More than a decade and half later, Ale is a para badminton player. He is ranked No 13 in the world in men's singles WH1 – the wheelchair badminton category.

"In 2014, I started para badminton," said Ale. "At that time, I was at the Para Physical Rehab Centre in Pune. There were many wheelchair badminton players in the Army and seeing all of them, I also started learning.

"In 2012, I took early retirement from the Army and in 2014, I participated in the Badminton Nationals held in Mumbai and won a bronze medal. This medal gave me the means to live and then I never looked back," added Ale, who is a Nepalese by descent.

Ale is currently plying his trade at the 2025 Khelo India Para Games in Delhi, competing in the Men's Singles WH1, Men's Doubles WH1-WH2 and Mixed Doubles WH1-WH2 categories.

Since being drawn into the world of para badminton, Ale has grown in stature. He was ranked as high as world No 9 back in 2022 and has clinched 10 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze medals at the international level.

He even reached the quarter-finals of the Para Badminton World Championships last year – a feat he had also achieved back in 2019, just five years after taking up the sport.

Ale, who dreams of playing in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics for the country, is participating in the Khelo India Para Games for the first time.

According to Ale, today para athletes get a lot of facilities and recognition but in 2014, the situation was exactly the opposite.

"There was a lack of provision for para athletes in 2014. In such a situation, we had to face difficulties. Today, the situation has completely changed. Today almost all our stadiums are accessible to para players," he said.

Currently, Ale trains under Aniket Singh at Chandra Patil Academy in Pune. Earlier, he has also trained under Gaurav Khanna at GKB Academy in Lucknow for four years, after which he returned to Pune to be with his family. He also has a son and a daughter.

"I am actually living my life right now. I did not live my life before the accident," Ale said.

"This is my second birth and I have no complaints from anyone now. Whatever was allowed to happen happened but after that I have been writing my own destiny," he signed off.