New Delhi, Nov 3 Dhinidhi Desinghu has given Indian swimming a reason to celebrate but the 16-year-old herself has no plans to rest on her laurels.
Her bronze medal in the women’s 100m freestyle at the Youth Olympics in Dakar marked India’s first swimming medal at the global event. It also opened the country’s medal count at the Games.
But Dhinidhi had imagined a different kind of finish. She wanted to break the 56-second barrier or win gold. Neither happened, leaving her with mixed feelings.
“On one side, the expectation I had for myself was very different. I wanted to go below 56 seconds, which didn’t happen though I was close, or win a gold medal, which also didn’t happen.
“In that way, I wasn’t thrilled; I was actually kind of disappointed,” she told PTI from Dakar.
The pride, however, comes from knowing just how unlikely her achievement might have seemed to many back home.
Swimming remains an under-performing sport in India, and women’s swimming has even less visibility. Dhinidhi is acutely aware of that gap, and of what it means to have become the country’s first swimmer to win a Youth Olympics medal.
“But at the same time, bringing back the country’s first medal. You would expect it in a different sport…you wouldn’t expect from a girl who is a swimmer because swimming is nowhere and women’s swimming is even more behind.
“So that way it is a very proud moment.”
Her time of 56.27 seconds in the final was not quite the sub-56 performance she had wanted, but it was enough to lower her own Best Indian Time of 56.57, set earlier this year.
Dhinidhi’s arrival on the international stage has been unusually early. At 14, she was the youngest member of India’s contingent at the 2024 Paris Olympics, having secured her place through the universality quota.
But it was the Youth Olympics, rather than the senior Games, that brought the greater competitive pressure.
“I didn’t really think about it (being an Olympian). That’s a much bigger meet. Like you’re an Olympian already. So, you’re coming to the Youth Olympics before the Olympics is like kind of funny.
“I didn’t really think too much about the Olympics because I didn’t really qualify. I was the best Indian. Yes, I got to go.”
“Here at the Youth Olympics, I’m competing against the exact people I will face in the future at the World Championships or World Juniors. Because of that, I actually had more expectation and pressure on myself to perform here than at the main Olympics.”
Paris, she said, had been largely about the experience. Dakar is different.
“Paris was more for like the life experience of it and less of performance.
“Here obviously, we’re looking at winning and doing well in terms of your time, coming back with medals. So, that way, it is very different. Youth Olympics is a little more pressure than the actual Olympics.”
There is little opportunity to sit back and absorb the significance of her bronze. Dhinidhi has two more events to contest, including the 200m freestyle, her main event, and is already looking beyond the medal she has won.
The 100m performance has given her confidence, particularly with her improved opening speed, and she hopes to translate that into an even better result.
“I feel much better going into that. Because now I have a lot more opening speed. I have goals for that as well.”
For someone already navigating the demands of elite sport, Dhinidhi also has the usual concerns of a Class 11 student.
She studies physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, balancing schoolwork with a swimming career.
Engineering is a family tradition of sorts. Her father works as a hardware engineer at Google, making microchips for phones, while her mother is a hardware engineer at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), working on robotics.
Dhinidhi, meanwhile, is beginning to build something of her own in a sport where India has rarely had a presence on the international stage.
Her first Youth Olympics medal may not have been the colour she wanted but it has given Indian swimming a milestone and its teenage trailblazer a reason to aim higher.
(PTI News)
