Paris Olympics 2024: Ghazipur’s Raj Kumar Pal aims to bring Olympic glory to his village
Representing India in the Paris Olympics 2024, field hockey player Raj Kumar Pal is aiming to win an Olympic medal to bring smiles to the faces of the residents of his native village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district.
The 26-year-old midfielder, who is endearingly known as ‘Ghazipur ke Raj Kumar’ (Ghazipur’s Prince), is from a small village known as Karampur, which is about 40 kilometers from Varanasi. With his selection for the Paris Olympics 2024, he became the first hockey player from his village, which has a population of around 3000, to represent his nation in the Olympics.
Raj Kumar Pal, who has 53 caps for India, made his national team debut against Belgium in the FIH Pro League in 2020. He became the first Karampur resident to achieve that feat.
Raj Kumar Pal’s journey to the Paris Olympics 2024 hasn't been an easy one. After losing his father to a road accident in 2011, his dreams of playing hockey were only sustained with the help of his family, as well as his mentor, the late Tej Bahadur Singh.
Pal became one of the players mentored by Singh in the Meghbaran Stadium, which he built in 1983 to train the village’s children in hockey.
“Those two years [after my father’s death] were very difficult for the family and I thought that I would not be able to play anymore but my family did not give up. My coach helped me a lot. I could not get selected for the Tokyo Olympics but I worked hard without getting disappointed and now I am going to Paris,” Pal told the news agency ANI. “When I enter the field in Paris, I will remember all these sacrifices.”
“When I got the news of my selection in the Olympics-bound team, I cried remembering my past and missed my father a lot. When I called home, my mother also cried. I will never forget my past and it inspires me,” Raj Kumar Pal added.
"The people of my village are looking upto me" - Raj Kumar Pal
The player’s inspirational story has motivated young children from Karampur to pick up hockey, and they learn the basics of the game at the Meghbaran Stadium, just like Pal himself.
Now, with the eyes of the nation and the residents of Karampur on him, Pal promises to give his best to secure a victory in the Paris Olympics 2024.
“More than 400 boys from my village got jobs through hockey but no one played at this level. The people of my village are looking up to me and I will leave no stone unturned in Paris to fulfil the unfulfilled dreams of my brothers and all others,” he said.