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From her early school days, P.T Usha showed sparks of her athletic talent by winning track events. At the age of 12, she represented her district for the Kerala State Government Sports School for Women. Just three years later, she participated in the National School Games and won an individual medal.

She made her international debut at the age of 16 in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. However, her performance in the 1980 Moscow Olympics was lacklustre. But, she gathered her strength and confidence from that outing to do something that no Indian had ever done - at her next Olympics, she became the first Indian sportswoman to enter the >Olympics final and that too at the prime age of only twenty.

Through out her career she showed exceptional talent in every race she ran. In the 1982 New Delhi Asiad, she won two silver medals in the 100 m and the 200 m, and at the Asian Track and Field (ATF) Championship in Kuwait a year later, Usha took a gold medal in the 400m on the way setting a new Asian record.

Between 1983-89, Usha garnered 13 golds at ATF meets. She reached the zenith of her track career during the 1984 L.A Olympics, an event that was both exciting and disappointing. She finished first in the semi-finals of the 400 metres hurdles in, but faltered in the finals. In almost a repeat of Milkha Singh's 1960 feat, there was a nail-biting photo finish for the third place and Usha lost the bronze by 1/100th of a second.

The 1984 Olympics earned Usha the right to be the first Indian woman (and only the fifth Indian) to reach the finals of an Olympic event.

In the 10th Asian Games held at Seoul in 1986, P.T. Usha won 4 gold and 1 silver medal in the track and field events. Here she created new Asian Games records in all the events she participated. She won five golds at the 6th Asian Track and Field Championship at Jakarta in 1985. Her six medals at the same meet is a record still unbroken, for a single athlete in an international meet.

Awards were to soon follow this illustrious Indian Athelete: the Arjuna Award and Padma Sree in 1984, Greatest women athlete in 1985 Jakarta Asian Athletic Meet, Best Athlete in Asia Award in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1989, Marshal Tito award for the best railway sportsperson in 1984, 1985, 1989 and 1990, Thirty International Awards, for her excellence in Athletics, and the World Trophy for best Athlete 1985, 1986. Interestingly she also won an award for journalism - the Kerala Sports Journalists Award for the year 1999!

Achievements : Has won 101 international medals. She is the first Indian woman to reach the final of an Olympic event.

Birth Date : June 27, 1964

Birth Place : Payyoli Kozhikode District, near Calicut, Kerala

Nicknames : Queen of Indian track and field, Payyoli Express

References:

http://living.oneindia.in/celebrity/sports/p-t-usha2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Usha