Meet Prachi Pandey, winner of 11 international medals while fighting neurodegenerative condition

In an interaction with SAI Media, Prachi, who trains at SAI, NCoE Gandhinagar spoke about her disability: “Since birth, I suffered spina bifida Myelomeningocele, I had a tumor in my spine, and when I was 14 years old, I underwent a spine surgery, after that disability started to affect my legs, as it is a neurodegenerative disease, it will go on increasing and there is no cure. In this disease the lower limbs become weaker and many become paralyzed, the doctors told me that I am lucky enough to walk.”

Prachi has till date won 11 medals(including Singles and doubles) in international competitions with her latest medal being a Bronze in the ITTF World Para Future Thailand, that was held from July 13-17, 2026. She has till date won as many as 18 gold medals across National Ranking Championships, National Championships and Khelo India Para Games.
Prachi who hails from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh was always keen on sports, and she persevered with her sporting endeavours despite doctors advising her against it”at school, I would participate in sports with able bodied students, I liked both cricket and Table Tennis, I was always attached to TT as I was good at that and grasped it fast, I would compete with boys at school, but after I had a surgery, the doctors said I should avoid sports, they advised me to wear caliper in the leg so as to avoid deformity, for 10 years I had to do dressing, and I took medicines continuously but I took up TT and continued anyway.”

The 33 year old said that as she is an athlete an active lifestyle helps her to arrest the deterioration of her condition “If I was a non athlete then I too would have become totally wheelchair bound long ago, because I am an athlete I am still mobile and am able to walk, day by day I think how I can improve myself physically.”

Prachi, who has completed her M. Tech from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh described how she started Para sports “During a train journey in 2019, I met a para athlete who told me about Para sports, as I was recovering from foot surgery at that time I could not make a start. After that COVID further delayed my plans. In 2021, I finally competed in my first para tournament and lost every match but that did not deter me and it increased my determination. As there were no para training facilities in my hometown(Unnao), I moved to Kanpur. I trained in a school in the mornings and worked full-time as a software engineer to stay financially independent. As I started winning, I quit my job and started concentrating solely on training.”

She praised the SAI, NCoE Gandhinagar where she trains “I have been training at the NCoE since September 2023, for an athlete it helps a lot if she trains at a centre which offers several facilities at a single place, be it physiotherapist, psychologist, nutritionist etc. After my admission here I did not have to worry about finances.”

As her disease is neurodegenerative in nature she was reclassified as a Class 6 para athlete in February this year, earlier she used to compete in the Class 7 category.

She describes herself as a defensive player “attacks require greater mobility and faster pace, being a Class 6 category player, my movements are restricted, so I have a defensive approach, I wait for the ball that is worthy of being attacked. I use a Carbon ply racket, which is neither too fast nor too slow, in the forehand I use short pimple, and I use the long pimple in the back hand.”

She picks 2020 Tokyo Paralympics silver medalist Bhavina Patel as her idol “she was an amazing player, played with a lot of patience, forced errors from her opponent and never got under pressure.”

Prachi says that she is working to strengthen her forehand “I am working on it(forehand), as in the international competitions I sometimes make mistakes while hitting a forehand.”