PT Usha
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Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (b. June 27, 1964) is an Indian athlete. The queen of Indian track and field for two decades, P.T. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. The initials stand for Payyoli Tevaraparampil, her family names according to the traditional naming system in many parts of South India. She was born in the Kerala village of Meladi-Payyoli near Calicut, afflicted by ill health and poverty. In 1976 the Kerala State Government started a Sports School for women, and Usha was chosen to represent her district, at a cost of Rs. 250 per month paid by the state.
In 1979 she participated in the National School Games, where she was noticed by O. M. Nambiar, who coached her through most of the rest of her career. India Today describes the athletic situation in 1979 as a time when 'athletics was very much a male sport and track-suited women a rarity'. Her debut in the 1980 Moscow Olympics was lacklustre. In the 1982 New Delhi Asiad, she managed only silver medals in the 100 m and the 200 m, but at the Asian Track and Field Championship in Kuwait a year later, Usha took gold in the 400 m with a new Asian record. Between 1983-89, Usha garnered 13 golds at ATF meets. She finished first in the semi-finals in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but faltered in the finals. In almost a repeat of Milkha Singh's 1960 feat, there was a nail-biting photo-finish for the third place. Usha lost the bronze by 1/100th of a second.The first Indian woman (and the fifth Indian) to reach the final of an Olympic event by winning her 400 m hurdles Semi-final.
In the 10th Asian Games held at Seoul in 1986, P.T.Usha won 4 gold and 1 silver medal in the track and field events. Here she created new Asian Games records in all the events she participated. P.T.Usha also won the most medals at a single championship – six at Jakarta in 1985. Her five gold at the 6th Asian Track and Field Championship is also a record for the most number of gold medals by a single athlete in a single international meet.
Usha's success story begins from the 1982 Asiad in which she won two gold medals in 100 meters and 200 meters respectively. She won 17 medals — 13 gold, 3 silver and a bronze in four Asian Track and Field Championship during the period from 1983-89.
Usha has won 101 international medals so far. She is employed as an officer in the Southern Railways.