Kasaragod: The Central University of Kerala has decided to confer an honorary doctorate on celebrated athlete P T Usha for her "exemplary contribution to sports", said vice chancellor H Venkateshwarlu.
It will be the first honorary doctorate awarded by the Kasaragod-based university since its inception in 2009, he said.
For Usha, it will be her fourth honorary doctorate. She was conferred a doctorate first by Kannur University in 2000, then by IIT Kanpur in 2017, and by the University of Calicut in 2018.
The government honoured Usha, known as the Golden Girl and Payyoli Express and 'Queen of Indian Track and Field' with a Padma Shri in 1985. In July 2022, the President nominated her to the Rajya Sabha.
In her career, she won more than 100 medals, most notably four gold medals at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. The country celebrated her when she missed out on a medal by 1/100th of a second at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
She has an unparalleled presence in the track and field even now by moulding the next generation of athletes, said Prof Venkateshwarlu.
She runs the Usha School of Athletics at Kinaloor in Kozhikode. In the past 20 years, athletes from the academy have won 79 international medals for India so far, he said. "She paved the way for a strong athletic culture in the country," he said and added that it was the duty of the university to honour those who are role models of the nation.
The university will announce the date of the function to honour the athlete later.
