Holder of 60 tournament medals, a Karate player from Mathura now sells tea due to lack of support

Hari Om Shukla, the Karate player from Mathura, is selling tea at his father's tea stall as he has no job and people have stopped sending their kids to learn Karate from him amid lockdown.

There are a lot of sportspersons we often come across who either leave sports or sell their medals to earn money. Hari Om Shukla, a Karate player from Mathura, might not have sold his medals but his financial conditions are also not very good and thus forcing him to sell tea.

The 28-year-old used to work at a private educational institution whose management used to help Hari Om pursue his passion. But his life changed after the institute stopped funding.

Hari Om, then, started teaching Karate to school kids which also stopped due to the lockdown. Not accepting the defeat, Hari Om decided to teach the children in his city and finally started receiving Rs 4,000 per month. However, the lockdown happened and it proved to be bad as people stopped sending their children to him.

Journey of the Karate player from Mathura

Just at the age of 23, Hari Om had, on his name, 60 medals in junior and senior categories at various karate tournaments. He had started his training at the age of 13 and had won his first international medal by participating in an event in Thailand.

In addition, he had also won a bronze medal in Kumite at 14th International Funakoshi Cup Karate Championship in Mumbai in 2009. In 2013, he received gold and silver medals in Thailand, and in 2015, he won a gold medal in Senior Men’s Kumite tournament under ‘75-80 kg’ in Sri Lanka.

Now, a father of a two-year-old son, Hari Om, is forced to sit at his father's tea stall to earn some money. Neither did his degree in Science subject could help him not the government. He had also met Hema Malini, who is the MP of Mathura, and Shrikant Sharma, the power minister of the city.

While he does not even have the money to get a copy of his graduation degree, we can only hope for his talent to be recognized by the people and his condition to get better soon. After all, such stories act as a demotivating factor for the youth to take sports as a career and the government must do something about this concern.

Source: The Times of India

Also Read: Meet Yogesh, who sells one of the best Litti-Chokha in Mumbai but struggling to earn money

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