CHENNAI: AFTER a near fatal crash in the outskirts of Mumbai 18 years ago, racer-turned wheelchair-athlete Jehan Dorab Madan has had a extraordinary turnaround in the second chapter of his life. He used to light up the tracks at the Madras International Circuit, but now, the 48-year-old is one of the nation's top para table tennis players.
Taking part in Class 1 para TT, which is the most challenging format of the discipline, the paddler from Tamil Nadu did not have it easy. Playing with able-bodied paddlers, and having a positive approach to setbacks has been key in the making of Madan as a paddler. Entering his fourth year in the sport, Madan has won medals at the continental levels this year. After a gold medal at the Khelo India Para Games in March 2025, he recently won two silvers and a bronze in Asian level meets at Taipei (World Para Future) and Kaosiung (World Para Challenger). This comes after a disappointing 2024, where he failed to qualify to the Paris Paralympics.
Those losses came against the likes of 2024 Paralympics bronze medallist from Italy, Federico Falco, 2016 Paralympics gold medallist from Great Britain, Rob Davies and Korean Paralympic medallists Joo Young Dae and Park Sun Joo.
Different athletes react to losing in their own way. For the Tamil Nadu paddler, losing is all about being curious and introspective. "I'm the kind of person, when I lose, I get very excited. I'm very curious. I would ask myself 'how did I lose?' And it's very interesting for me to understand how I lost. I get very excited with video matches. You practice and you're playing one type of game. You can't play that kind of game that you do in practice. Players today play in such a way that they don't want you to touch the ball. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter what you practice. You're not touching the ball," he told this daily.
When the crash happened 18 years ago, the first objective was to make body parts move. At the time, sport was not on Madan's mind. It was only when he came across a video of British para-athlete Rob Davies in the 2012 Paralympics in London, Madan decided to give table tennis a try. "I used to be a tennis player my whole life, and watching this I thought this should be fun."
He trains with able-bodied, club level paddlers at the Madras Club in Adyar. "These are people who have been with me from the beginning of my journey. So they know my game more than anybody. They will watch my matches on YouTube and they will advise me what I need to work on," he explained.
Madan fancies himself with a chance in next year's Asian Games. From 2026, rankings will now change every 52 weeks like table-tennis. This means players like Madan have a chance to improve their rankings by beating opponents, unlike the previous system where only the top 30 are chosen by the organising committee. "The chances for Asian Games and Olympics becomes very high for us because we are on an even platform," he said.
Apart from making strides in para table-tennis, Madan has a mission away from the table - to make life easier for people like him. "You don't have to be a very wealthy person to have a great life, Having clean roads, with pavements for walkers and good clean water without sewage lying around. These are just really very basic things which benefit a large population," he said. He is part of the Disability Rights Association (DRA) an NGO which has advocated for accessible walkways and disabled-friendly public transport like low-floor buses.
