P. T. Usha was born in 1964 at Payyoli village in Kerala. She is the second daughter of Paithol and Lakshami Amma. At school. Usha was an extremely bright strident and had dreams of becoming a doctor. Encouraged by her teacher. Balakrishna Master who discovered her and her coach Nambir. who trained her. Usha started her athletic career at school. Very soon she started hitting the headlines and won many gold and silver medals.
She was selected as a member of the India contingent to Moscow and was the youngest participant at the Moscow Olympics.
At the Asian Games at New Delhi. Usha did incredibly well by bagging two silver medals. But neither she nor her countrymen were happy. Perhaps. she had aroused too many expectations in the hearts of her admirers. Usha continued to win several medals at various competitions. The Jakarta meet in 1985 was a landmark in Usha's athletic career because here she got a chance to defeat her old rival.
Lydia of Philippines and won five gold medals and one silver medal. Usha became so popular in Jakarta that one of the Indonesian newspapers nicknamed her "The Indian Gold Company".
Usha had caught the imagination of the Indian public by her wonderful performance at 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where she narrowly lost a medal by one hundredth of a second.
Her greatest moment of triumph. however, came when she participated in the 1986 Asian Games at Seoul. South Korea. Here. she reached the height of her glory with four gold medals and one silver. No one doubted now that a star was born in Asia. none doubted her quality as an International athlete.