Navin Kumar plays table tennis in the Paralympics despite a heart condition.

As a young boy in Utah, Navin Kumar would often sprint across his front yard and imagine himself as the Six Million Dollar Man, the star of a 1970s TV series who had bionic limbs that gave him superhuman speed and strength.

“God, I wish I was bionic,” Kumar would think to himself.

Back then, he never dreamed people would one day dub him the “Bionic Man.”

Kumar, who graduated in 1997 with a degree in computer science, is a Paralympic table tennis athlete with a partially mechanical heart ­— the reason why people in the table tennis community gave him the nickname.

It, along with a pacemaker, comes as a result of Kumar’s five open-heart surgeries for Shone’s syndrome, a rare congenital heart disease.

The 41-year-old, who also has Parkinson’s disease, said he uses the sport as a lifeline. Beyond the joy it brings him to compete, table tennis helps him from “a cardiovascular standpoint as well as a neurological standpoint.” It combats some effects of Parkinson’s by improving his reflexes and loosening his muscles, he said.

“Parkinson’s patients benefit from ‘random practice’ exercises, which challenge them to change tempo, activity or direction,” physical therapist Debbie Fuggini said. “Table tennis involves changes in both direction and tempo. Parkinson’s patients also have resting tremors which dissipate with movement.”

Kumar’s father, a former champion table tennis player in India, started teaching his son the sport when he was 4 years old. He played on and off throughout his life, though sometimes inhibited by his illness.

After seeing a screening of the film Ping Pong Summer about a year ago, Kumar decided to begin training for the Paralympics.

Although he said he had been away from the game for some time when he attended the screening, he chose to return after hearing the line: “What you bring to the table is who you are.”

“That quote lit a fire within me,” Kumar said.

This month, Kumar competed at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas, and in June , he competed in his first international table tennis tournament in Spain. While he didn’t medal in Spain, he did upset a Norwegian player during the tournament.

“I’m playing for survival and to inspire others,” he said. “Being able to represent my country … that is the true gold medal for me.”

His goal is to qualify for the U.S. Paralympic team that is going to Rio de Janeiro, right after the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, the 2020 Tokyo games might be a more attainable goal, considering he has just one year of competitive experience.

“The odds are against me since this is only my first year competing internationally, but my whole life has been about … defying the odds and overcoming my obstacles,” he said.

Kumar, who works as an IT specialist with the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said talking about his experience “gives [him] the strength to persevere.” He participates in speaking engagements and has started writing a book.

Kumar, who is married with two daughters, is the first athlete with Parkinson’s to represent the United States as part of the Paralympic Program.

“Navin Kumar inspires people who do not go outside, who stay at home, who allow society to define who they are and what they can accomplish,” said Tahl Leibovitz, a Paralympic gold medalist widely regarded as one of the best at the sport in the country. “I think he has a positive impact on these people, and maybe as a result of his travels the average person just might see themselves as more than just being defined by their disability.”