The spirit of sport

They gathered in Sofia, Bulgaria from July 26 to August 4, 2013. The thrill and skill of Olympic sports, the joy and jubilation, the flame and the flag, the opening and closing ceremonies were all there, but the big difference was that all the athletes were hearing impaired. They let their hands (sign language) and feats do the talking. They relied not on the starter’s gun, the referee’s whistle or the umpire’s spoken words, but on a standardized system of communication, be it lights or flags. Among them was 16-year-old Jehan Jamshed Daboo, the youngest of the three players representing India in the men’s badminton event at the 22nd Summer Deaflympics.

"I was completely in the ‘zone’ out there in Sofia. I was obviously nervous before the first match, but then whenever I get on to the court it is a great emotion of complete joy to be where I am. I was scared as I was a mere boy in the company of adults. But then I embraced my fears and forgot about everything except the court, the shuttle, the racquet, my opponent and me,” the teenager told Parsiana in an email response. In the league matches, Daboo defeated Miroslav Liposky from Slovakia (21-13, 21-5) and Baris Ural from Turkey (15-21, 21-17, 21-19) and entered the knockout stage. "He then lost to Aditya Hermawan of Indonesia, but he acquitted himself very well, being the youngest player to enter the knockout stage,” says his mother Vahishtai.
"When I won my first match I was elated and thought: ‘Wow! That was something! I express emotions on the court. I sweat profusely. I feel like a bird, flying everywhere and I feel that my racquet and I become one with each other,” Daboo speaks from the heart. The lad trains under coach Hufrish Nariman at the Tata Padukone Badminton Centre at the Cricket Club of India in Bombay and has been under her guidance since he was nine (see "The sound of success,” Parsiana, Sports, September 21, 2011). Deboo is presently in the tenth standard at Bombay International School. "Some people ask me how I am able to get up at five in the morning on school days to train. I tell them that I don’t know. The things I know are that I love the game I play, I am passionate about it and whenever I step on to the court I’m in my home!”
Daboo is the reigning men’s champion for the deaf in Maharashtra. At the XVIIIth National Games of the Deaf at Aurangabad in April, he won three bronze medals (men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles). In 2011, he had represented India at the 3rd World Deaf Badminton Championship at Bucheon, South Korea. "No matter how much my family and I have struggled, in the end it was worth everything. Before I wore my India blazer in Bulgaria I was just Jehan Daboo. When I wore the blazer I became Jehan Daboo, Olympian.”