FULL NAME: Kalpana Jena
GENDER: Female
DATE OF BIRTH: Not known
PARENTS: Father (Gadadhar Jena), Mother (Gitanjali Jena)
HOME ADDRESS: Regedapada, Khuntakata, Athagarh, Cuttack, Odisha, India.
ACADEMIC EDUCATION: Not known
EVENTS PURSUES: 2km time trial
TRAINING PLACE: Athagarh
RECEIVED COACHING FROM: Bibekananda Mohanty and Satbir Singh Sahota
TEAMS/UNITS REPRESENTED: Odisha, India

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:

INTERNATIONAL:
*     Won the Silver medal in 2km time trial event (age group 16-21 years) at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin, Germany on 21 June 2023.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
*     On 29 June 2023, Oddisha Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera felicitated her with a cash award of Rs 3 lakh for winning one silver at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin.
*     Kalpana is an intellectually disable athlete.
*     She hails from an economically weaker family of six members.
*     Her parents work as agricultural farm labourers.
*     Received training in various sports disciplines such as badminton, athletics and floorball in early 2019.
*     Initially, she was trained by local coach and mentor Bibekananda Mohanty.
*     Before taking to sports, Kalpana used to ride between her house and school since 2017.
*     In 2017 she was introduced to Special Olympics through her mentor Mohanty, as part of the regular SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhyan) outreach by the state chapter.
*     After knowing about the achievement of Kalpana, Athagarh MLA and Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain presented her with a racing cycle for practice.
*     Earlier, Kalpana was often bullied for the way she speaks.
*     But after being trained, she has showed drastic improvement in her social behaviour and public communication skills.
*     Now she has grown into a good athlete leader.

PROFILE FIRST UPLOADED: 22 June 2023
PROFILE LAST UPDATED: 30 June 2023