The President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind stepped down from the stage at Padma award function part 3 today at Rashtrapati Bhavan to pin the award to Karnataka based sportsperson KY Venkatesh. The President generally steps down from the stage to pin the award only in the case of those who are in wheelchair. However due to short length of the stage, he found he would not be able to pin the award to a 4.2 ft awardee, perhaps the tiniest Padm award recipient till date. He spoke to an awardee briefly and both left the stage so that pinning the medal can be possible and heights can be adjusted with ease.
KY Venkatesh was born with Achondroplasia, a growth disorder which causes dwarfism. The 50-year old parasports man has height of 4ft 2 inches . He forayed into sports in 1994. For almost two decades he represented the state and the country at various national and international meets in athletics and badminton. He was the first athlete to represent India at the World Dwarf Games.
After retiring as an athlete, Venkatesh decided to contribute to parasports as an administrator.
Venkatesh comes from a family of businessmen.
