Asian Games 2018: 12-toed golden girl Swapna Barman to get customised shoes

Moved by the pain Swapna Barman endured enroute to her historic gold in the Heptathlon event of the 18^th Asian Games, an Indian government company has come forward to help the athlete with six toes on each foot get customized shoes.

“After she won the gold I saw on TV that she had a deformity in her feet,” Sudhanshu Mani, the general manager of Integral Coach Factory was quoted as saying by AFP.

Barman needs four different types of shoes for the seven events in Heptathlon believes Mani, whose company manufactures railway coach and is based in the southern city of Chennai.

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“We are in touch with Nike. We are waiting for her to come back so that we can get her size and get customised shoes made for her,” he added reports the news agency.

Barman, who fails from the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal has been promised a reward of One million rupees and a government job by the State Chief Minister.

He father a rickshaw-puller has been bed-ridden for several years after suffering a stroke, while her mother, who earlier worked in the tea-garden had to leave her job to attend to him. The entire family depends on their only son, who works as a stone-mason.

“How could I get that done? I myself was born with six toes on one foot. It is because of me that Swapna is this way,” her father was quoted by AFP. “The surgery to fix her leg had been impossible for the high cost. I managed and we thought she would too.”

The disfigured legs were not Swapna’s only problem in the final, where she had to use a taped jaw because of a toothache. But overcoming all of the troubles, she won the won the high jump, shot put and Javelin throw before finishing fourth in the 800m marathon, to record her personal best score of 6,026 and eventually win the gold.