PT Usha Major Medals and Results
| Year | Competition | Result | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Asian Games, New Delhi | 2 silver | 100 m, 200 m |
| 1983 | Asian Championships, Kuwait City | Gold, silver | 400 m (gold), 200 m (silver) |
| 1984 | Olympic Games, Los Angeles | 4th | 400 m hurdles, 55.42 s |
| 1985 | Asian Championships, Jakarta | 5 gold, 1 bronze | 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 4×400 m relay; 4×100 m relay bronze |
| 1986 | Asian Games, Seoul | 4 gold, 1 silver | 200 m, 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 4×400 m relay; 100 m silver |
| 1987 | Asian Championships, Singapore | 3 gold, 2 silver | 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 4×400 m relay |
| 1989 | Asian Championships, New Delhi | 4 gold, 2 silver | 200 m, 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 4×400 m relay |
| 1990 | Asian Games, Beijing | 3 silver | 400 m, 4×100 m relay, 4×400 m relay |
| 1994 | Asian Games, Hiroshima | Silver | 4×400 m relay |
| 1998 | Asian Championships, Fukuoka | 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze | 4×100 m relay gold in a national record of 44.43 s |
PT Usha Career Journey
Los Angeles 1984: The One-Hundredth of a Second
After a disappointing outing in the sprints at the 1983 World Championships, Usha switched her focus to the 400 m hurdles. At the Los Angeles Olympics she set a Commonwealth record in the semi-final and reached the final, where a false start by another runner forced a restart. She was slower off the blocks the second time and finished fourth in 55.42 seconds, missing the bronze by just 0.01 s. That time stood as the Indian national record for 42 years, until Vithya Ramraj ran 54.75 s at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. Usha, attending as IOA President, publicly congratulated her.
Jakarta 1985 and Seoul 1986: Asia’s Fastest Woman
Usha’s peak came over the next two years. At the 1985 Asian Championships in Jakarta she won five golds (100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 400 m hurdles and the 4×400 m relay) plus a relay bronze, a record haul for a single athlete at one edition of the championships. Her 400 m and 400 m hurdles wins came within roughly half an hour of each other. Weeks later she ran 51.61 s in the 400 m at the World Cup in Canberra. At the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul she won four golds, all in Games-record times, and a silver in the 100 m.
Comeback and Final Years
She kept winning Asian titles through 1987 and 1989, and continued to race for India after marriage and motherhood. At the 1998 Asian Championships in Fukuoka, at 34, she helped India’s 4×100 m relay team win gold in a national record of 44.43 seconds and added individual bronzes in the 200 m and 400 m. She retired in 2000 after more than two decades at the top.
PT Usha Records and Milestones
- 400 m hurdles: 55.42 s (Los Angeles 1984), the Indian national record from 1984 until Vithya Ramraj broke it with 54.75 s on 28 September 2026.
- 400 m: 51.61 s (Canberra 1985); 200 m: 23.05 s; 100 m: 11.39 s (1985).
- Five golds at a single Asian Championships (Jakarta 1985), a record for one athlete at one edition.
- Four golds at the 1986 Asian Games, all in Games-record times.
- 23 medals at the Asian Championships, 14 of them gold, plus 11 Asian Games medals.
- Represented India at Olympic Games from Moscow 1980 to Atlanta 1996.
PT Usha Awards and Honours
- Arjuna Award (1984)
- Padma Shri (1985)
- Honorary doctorates from Kannur University (2000), IIT Kanpur (2017), the University of Calicut (2018) and the Central University of Kerala (2023)
- IAAF (World Athletics) Veteran Pin (2019)
- Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural Athletics Federation of India awards (June 2026)
