Kerala girl Tilotama Ikareth becomes torchbearer at 2024 Paris Olympics

Tilotama Ikareth, a torchbearer at the 2024 Olympics, overcame challenges to pursue her dream of Paralympic taekwondo.

Tilotama Ikareth is thrilled to be one among the athletes who carried the torch at the Olympic torch relay, ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 games in Paris today. Twenty-year-old Tilotama describes it as an “amazing experience”. 

“It is not just about carrying the torch for a few seconds; it is also about representing the spirit of the Olympic Games — determination, equality, courage and inspiration. The atmosphere of the whole event was ‘wow’!” she says, over the phone from France. She joined the rally at Gennevilliers, about nine kilometres from Paris. 

Tilotama, who was born with brachial plexus injury (a spinal cord related complication that led to a partial paralysis of her right arm), lived the first 16 years of her life in Kottayam. Her father Joe Ikareth is a fashion designer and her mother Murielle, who hails from France, is a creative movement therapist. After Class VII, Tilotama dropped out of school and decided to continue with her studies at home. She finished her Class 10 through the National Institute of Open Schooling. “Since I have dyslexia, school was not easy for me,” she says. 

The family moved to Bellot in France after COVID-19. “When I came to France, I spent a year adjusting to the French system; then I came across this organisation called Impulsion75, which enables young people to join a professional coaching programme that combines sport and arts with the aim of easing them back into social inclusion and workplace integration. They helped me get my certificate to be a sports teacher,” says Tilotama. 

By way of her association with Impulsion75, Tilotama got the opportunity to visit The National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) and discovered para taekwondo, an adaptation of taekwondo for disabled sportspeople. She was drawn to the sport and decided to pursue it. “Paralympic coach Oury Sztantman told me I have a great potential for this sport. I have been practising since then, for about a year-and-a-half now. 

Her dream is to make it to the 2028 Paralympics team. “I am undergoing training three times a week from 9 to 10.30pm with Hans Zohin, one of the trainers of the French team. After the Paralympics games, I would have to do a test to get into the French para taekwondo team. I hope a super journey will start then,” adds Tilotama.

Tilotama wants to share her love for sports to adults and children alike. “I want to be able to show them that even with a disability, one can do so many things and also be good at what one does. Of course, I would not have been able to do this without the amazing support of my family. Never give up on your dreams,” she says.