The Fit Folk
Every person we feature, in one place — public creators we cover editorially and everyday people who share their stories with consent. Real people, real places.
All the folk — page 4
- India
Major D P Singh
Major D.P. Singh (Devender Pal Singh) is a retired Indian Army officer and Kargil War veteran who was declared dead on arrival after a 1999 mortar blast and lost a leg. He became India's first blade runner, completing the country's first marathon on a blade prosthesis in 2011 and more than 21 marathons since, and is described as Asia's first disabled solo skydiver (2019). He founded The Challenging Ones, an NGO supporting fellow amputees, and maintains a public profile as a motivational speaker under the 'India's Blade Runner' identity.
- Mumbai, India
Manasi Joshi
Manasi Joshi is an Indian para-badminton player and former women's singles SL3 world champion, who rose to world No. 1 in the category as of 8 March 2022; a former software engineer, she took up competitive badminton after a 2011 road accident led to the amputation of her leg, trained under coach Pullela Gopichand after joining his academy in Hyderabad in 2018, and won gold in the women's singles SL3 final at the 2019 BWF Para-Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland.
- Ballabhgarh (Faridabad), Haryana, India
Manish Narwal
Manish Narwal, born 17 October 2001, is an Indian para-pistol shooter from Ballabhgarh who won gold in the men's 50m pistol SH1 event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics with a Paralympic-record score of 218.2, later added a silver in the 10m air pistol SH1 event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, and took bronze in the men's 10m event at the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou.
- Periavadagampatti, Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India
Mariyappan Thangavelu
Mariyappan Thangavelu is a Paralympic high jumper from Periavadagampatti, Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India, born on 28 June 1995, who won India's first Paralympic gold medal since 2004 in the men's high jump T42 event at the Rio 2016 Paralympics with a jump of 1.89m, and later won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in the men's high jump T42/T63 event, clearing 1.86m, as the reigning Rio champion.
- Mumbai, India
Namrata Purohit
Namrata Purohit is the co-founder of The Pilates Studio, one of India's major Pilates and fitness chains, which she built alongside her father Samir Purohit, himself a celebrity fitness expert and co-founder of the studio; she was certified as a Stott Pilates instructor at age 16, making her one of the youngest trained Stott Pilates instructors in the world, and has gone on to train Bollywood figures including Janhvi Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, who have practiced Pilates at the studio for over a decade, while her personal Instagram following has grown past 550,000.
- India
Natasha Mohan
Dietitian who by her own account once weighed 101kg and lost more than 40 kilos, then built an online diet-consultation practice around PCOS, thyroid and lifestyle disorders, with a large YouTube audience for Indian-kitchen weight-loss cooking.
- Panipat, Haryana, India
Navdeep Singh Sheoran
Navdeep Singh Sheoran is an Indian para javelin thrower, born 11 November 2000 in Panipat, Haryana, who competes in the F41 classification for athletes of short stature; he won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw F41 event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics with a Paralympic record effort of 47.32 metres, after his result was upgraded from silver following the disqualification of Iran's Sadegh Beit Sayah for unfurling a non-state flag, and he is also a silver and bronze medalist at the World Para Athletics Championships.
- Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Oksana Masters
Oksana Masters is an American multi-sport Paralympic athlete who has competed in Para Nordic skiing, Para-cycling, and Para-rowing, making her Paralympic debut at the 2012 London Games with a bronze medal in rowing; as of the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympics she is recognized as the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian in history, and in February 2023 she published a memoir, 'The Hard Parts: A Story of Courage and Triumph.'
- Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Pramod Bhagat
Pramod Bhagat is a para-badminton player from Attabira in Odisha's Bargarh district who trains in Bhubaneswar and competes in the SL3 (lower-limb impairment) category after developing polio in childhood; he became India's first-ever Paralympic badminton champion when he won gold in men's singles SL3 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, and his Twitter bio lists him as a recipient of the Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Award, and Padma Shri.
