Wisdom and vision aside, it’s the sheer desire to pursue excellency which propels one to go the extra mile. Or so believes Niranjan Mukundan, a 22-year-old Indian para swimmer and Junior World Champion’2015.
Snagging a bronze medal at the Asian Games ’14, 75 national medals and 37 international medals later, the game has just begun for this young achiever. In the midst of preparations for Asian and Commonwealth Games ’18, he shares the inside track with us...
“I was about eight years old, when I began taking swimming lessons as part of aqua therapy. I trained under coach John Christopher after I underwent 16 major surgeries. This was one of the mechanisms to help me cope with a lot of struggles — which I faced physiologically, as well as internally,” reveals the alumnus of Jain University, Bengaluru.
However, the initial struggle didn’t deter him from giving the sport his all, only to be followed by laurels in a short span — Becoming the first Indian para swimmer to win 10 medals at the Junior World Championship’15.
Reminiscing about how his first Nationals performance back in the year 2003, Niranjan enthuses, “You need to love everything you do. Being a para-swimmer was a challenge, and the pressures of participating at a Paralympic National level event is no easy feat. But the fact that I gave my 100 percent is what reaped the results. Winning a silver (50 m butterfly), not only heightened my confidence levels, but ensured I gave my all.”
Niranjan is also a recipient of Ekalavya Award ’16, National Award for Best Sports-person of the Year ’15 by Government of India and Achiever’s Award ’15 from JGI Group. The city-based para-swimmer also has eight medals to his credit from IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports) U-23 World Games in Prague, Czech Republic ’16.
Now, his eyes are set on the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, Nothing comes in the way of creative downtime. “I love cars and I’m planning to cover the golden quadrilateral in my car. I swear by positivity. My little sister has begun to take table tennis classes, and I love giving her occasional pep talks to up her game. I’d want people to realise motivation helps a lot more than you thought it did,” he says.
Fingers crossed, the Bengaluru boy speaks about what’s next on the cards,
“I’m currently training in Thailand under a Spanish coach who has trained a lot of Olympians and ParaOlympians. It’s going to be a packed year. I hope to make the city and myself proud. That’s the only focus for now,” he concludes.
