Ranveer Singh Saini

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

A profile

The Times of India, Aug 02 2015

Rohit Bhardwaj & Sharad Kohli

Autistic golfer Ranveer Singh Saini became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles in 2015. He is also the youngest participant, at 14 years, to win the competition. The Gurgaon-based amateur won the golf-Level 2 alternate shot team play event with `unified' partner and aunt Monica Jajoo by an em phatic nine strokes. The Class 9 student at Scottish High School in Gurgaon, who was diagnosed with autism when he was a year and 11 months old, defeated special golfers from 21 countries along with Monica.

Ranveer and Monica took a four-stroke lead on the opening day , led by seven strokes on Day Two and picked one more shot in the penultimate round before beating the Hong Kong duo of Tsz Leung Chung and Ka Kit Lam and Japanese pair of Takefumi Hiyoshi and Tadatoshi Sakai, who finished joint second.

Ranveer, who first picked up a golf club at the age of nine, said he would celebrate the victory with a visit to Disneyland and a special gift from father Kartikeya Singh Saini, who accompanied him to the event.

Ranveer has already won gold twice in the Special Olympics AsiaPacific International Level 1 & 2 events in 2013 and 2014. Ranveer Singh Saini, the autistic golfer has also won a gold at the Special Olympics World Games.

Special Olympics World Games happen every four years and his father Kartikeya wants his son to graduate to Level 5 of the competition, which is an 18-hole individual strokeplay event, when the next edition takes place.

“He has already won the Asia-Pacific gold twice. Next year he will compete in Level 5 of the event in Macau as they don't have an intermediary level after Level 2. So he will get good understanding of the higher age category and by the time the next World Games arrive, he will be ready to play on his own,“ Kartikeya added.

For Anitya Chand, Ranveer's coach of more than four years, the golden feat came as a surprise, if a pleasant one. “I'm surprised, absolutely! The issue with autism is the inability to communicate. For the first six to eight months together, we made no progress, and I started asking myself, `What do I do?' `How do I teach?' It's unlike anything else, interacting with a special needs child. I thought, 'If he becomes a golfer, that will be good enough'.But Ranveer went from strength to strength. I think we prepared him very well,“ admits Chand.

Ranveer was certainly ready for a shot at glory. He now returns home as that rare Indian athlete, the proud owner of a gold medal, and a motivation for many.