CHENNAI: Two states apart, a paddle and passion for being on top of the world connects two Deepikas. “I am not the Deepika you are looking for,” quips the 27-year-old Deepika Rani Ramanathan, as she shares the other Deepika’s number, who many media had misnamed.
Both Deepika Rani Ramanathan and Vijaya Deepika Gangapatnam were part of the ITTF World Para Future Lahti tournament in Finland at the end of August, where Vijaya Deepika (16) won gold in singles and mixed doubles categories.
Coimbatore’s Deepika Rani Ramanathan picked up the paddle only in 2019, when she was 20 in college. She tried her hand at multiple sports before finalising on para table tennis after the service coach at Ganga Spine Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Coimbatore, Meenakshi Chandran had advised her.
“It was service coach Meenakshi Chandran who led me to table tennis at the Ganga Spine Injury Rehabilitation Centre and trained me there,” the 27-year-old tells DT Next.
It is at that centre that the 27-year-old paddle, wheelchair-bound has trained most of her life. The Coimbatore athlete suffers from severe spine issues, which has restricted her flexibility. “All my limbs were paralysed when I was three months old after taking polio drops. After a year of physiotherapy, I could move my hands but not my legs,” she opens up about her condition.
It wasn’t until 2025 when she left her IT job in Bengaluru to relocate to Coimbatore, where she now began working towards her sporting dream alongside senior Avinash Gopinathan. Soon after at the end of 2025, Deepika won her first national medal, clinching bronze at the National Ranking Tournament in the mixed doubles category.
“I won a silver medal in the Khelo India Para Games in 2025. Since then, I have been competing in national and state championships. My highest achievement was in the UTT Para Senior Table Tennis National Championships 2025-26 in February 2026. I won a gold medal there in the singles category,” she adds.
Currently, she is ranked 18th in class 2 para table tennis across the world.
It was a distant dream years ago for Deepika, who until fourth grade was being carried around by her father before she got her wheelchair in the fifth grade. When she was in ninth grade, her spine completely bent, a full spine deformity, which led to emergency surgery. While the surgery saved her life, it restricted her agility further. “School life was spent dealing with people and the society that looks at you with pity. It was only in college I realised what life was,” she says.
For wheelchair-bound players like Deepika, para sports becomes even more inaccessible. "It's hard to travel by train with a wheelchair to tournaments,” she says with her voice changing tone.
“We have to take a flight, which is the most expensive option. By the time we reach, we are already exhausted and the game then becomes much more difficult. There are training academies where we would not be allowed because our wheelchair would ruin their court," she adds.
“Even when we reach the tournament region, the stadium would be accessible, but the hotels where we are put to stay would not be.” When going for tournaments, the team writes to the government for funding. There is no fund that comes automatically; even for her government job, she wrote letters to the government asking for one under the sports quota.
Managing her job as a junior auditor and practice has been quite tiring. However, now after being employed by the TN government under the sports quota, Deepika does her job and practices every day. "In states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, those who are employed through the sports quota have facilities to play and hone their skills and work towards their next tournament,” she says.
“For me that's not the case. I have to work in the mornings and come back here in the evenings to practice, which takes a toll on her health, as sitting for long is not something she could do.”
While her next goal is being a Paralympic medallist, she says that the country needs much better Para sport infrastructure, including in Tamil Nadu. “While I can afford to spend money and focus on my sport, there are players here in Coimbatore who cannot do that because they have family commitments and other necessities. There needs to be awareness and accessibility both,” she says.
A few hundred miles away in Hyderabad, Telangana is the other Deepika of the story: Vijaya Deepika Gangapatnam. The 16-year-old para athlete began playing table tennis because of her father, and her life hasn’t been the same ever since.
"I started table tennis mainly because of my father; he wanted me to enjoy something other than sitting at home, so he introduced me to table tennis,” Vijaya Deepika tells DT Next.
She trained at an academy for 6-7 months before winning her first national medal in 2025. Now, the 16-year-old has as many minor medals under her belt.
Vijaya Deepika has a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bones). "This condition makes me prone to getting fractures even from a simple fall. That's the reason my parents have to accompany me everywhere," she says. Her parents have been at every step of her journey, from neighbourhood to tournaments abroad.
But with that also comes the cost. She is currently being homeschooled, and the competition in Finland delayed her plans to be admitted to high school. Her condition also means that she has lost quite a bit of opportunities.
"Accessibility is one of the primary issues. Going anywhere is a problem, from camps to academies,” she explains. “One of the main reasons behind my table tennis accessibility is my brother, Vijay Tej, a national-level lawn tennis player,” she explains.
Tej turned into a Level 1 para coach for his sister. Currently, she trains with her father, Vijay Bhaskar who is also a NIS-trained Lawn Tennis coach. “I practice in the morning before my father leaves for work and train again when he is back from 4 pm to 8 pm,” she says.
Travelling around for tournaments comes with an added cost for her as she needs two people to accompany. “The funds that we get would not be enough, as I would need two people, and nobody sponsors two escorts. For national competitions, we spend around Rs 50,000 and for international competitions around 6 lakh each,” she adds.
A fear of getting new fractures looms over as they travel around through inaccessible means for these competitions. “So many opportunities have been lost because of this fear of falling,” she rues.
Her father says that accessibility should be the job of the government. “Unfortunately, we have not received any support financial/training/ recommendation/referrals or a word of appreciation from the government or any of the sports bodies in the country. While the budget is being allocated, the money and support are not reaching any of us,” he says.
“It was only because of our efforts that she has been winning accolades. Why should a para player like my daughter go all the way to competitions, spending in lakhs, when she is representing the country?” he asks.
Despite these roadblocks, Vijaya Deepika’s ambitions remain undeterred. While she missed out on the Para Asian Games selection cycle, a significant test awaits her at the ITTF World Para Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, where she will face the world’s elite.
Two distinct states, two different classifications, but a single table and identical resolve: proving that sporting brilliance will always outrun systemic neglect.