Guwahati News Desk: Archana Jaivittal M J from ASARE, a home for the specially challenged being run by ARCHANA Trust and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is all set to participate in the Special Olympics World Championship Dance Sport 2021 at Graz in Austria.
She will be the sole participant to represent India in this category, Archana is prepared for a 90-sec performance at the competition which to be held on August 19 and 20, 2021 in the Classical- Solo category.
Over the past few years, Archana has been taking regular classes in Indian Classical in Bharat Natyam but during the pandemic she kept her training going keeping under COVID-19 restrictions in mind.
Through her long journey within Special Olympics, Archana made India proud when she bagged a Bronze in Swimming at the SOAP Regional Games held in 2013. She continued to maintain swimming as her strength, under the guidance of Jagadish Shettar, Prakash Poojary, and under the mentorship of the SO Bharat National Trainers, Sundaresh and Bharati Kothari.
Earlier, she repeated the feat in the Abu Dhabi World Games 2019 winning another Bronze. She is eager and confident for participating in this new category of Dancesport that has once again bought her in the spotlight. In 2015, she received the national award in the role model category by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
Archana leaves for Graz in Austria on Friday that would welcome 80 Athletes from 13 nations at the first Special Olympics Dance Sport World Championship. Special Olympics Athletes will compete in four categories- Solo, Duo, Couples, and Teams within the four disciplines – Ballroom, Street dance, Performance Art, and Speciality. Dancesport, officially recognized by Special Olympics in 2019, is a unique sport that would increase the participation of the Athletes and the Unified partner experiences, encouraging more people to engage in Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) fraternity are already elated with Archanaâs continuous path breaking achievements which inspire and motivate thousands of people with special needs, and we are rooting for her and wishing her the very best for her Dancesport performance at Graz, Austria.