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World Water Day Special: In conversation with under-14 Nationals swimming medalist Ariesa Mongia

Ariesa Mongia, an under-14 National swimming medalist, gives us a sense of the life of a young athlete in a country where not all sports are equal

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A few years ago, she failed to qualify for the Nationals by 0.01 seconds. This year, she had a podium finish because she was just 0.03 seconds faster—this is a world in which how you look or which strata of society you come from doesn't matter; all that matters is how good you are and what the clock says.

S
he's swum with a 102-degree temperature; she's even swum with a fractured elbow to win two bronze and a relay team gold in the recent Nationals. “It was surreal to win with a broken arm,” exults the 14-year-old. With her maternal grandfather being India's first Asian Games gold medalist in diving, her father and her paternal grandfather both being Asian Games sailing medalists and her mother being a water polo player, it may be easy to dismiss her achievements as only natural for someone who describes herself as having “water in her veins”. What you can't ignore is the grit of a girl who struggled for five years to make it to the Nationals. The humility of a child, who tells you that she knows she's blessed to have the level of luxury she does and that she admires the swimmers on her team at Otter's Club, who fight for their dreams and do well, though they may not be as privileged.

An athlete must learn to tune out the world; this is a lesson she learned well after letting a competitor get into her head just before a race. She is no stranger to losing, but she's learn
ed to shake it off and focus on the next race. “I love it; I can't live without it,” says the girl who is particularly fond of the back stroke, and has been swimming competitively since she was seven.

Ariesa is not exactly a morning person, but she still wakes up at 5 a.m. for practice. She trains for around 16 hours a week though increments in performance are minimal
in a sport like swimming, and often has to cut down on socialising and TV. She's learned to use time well and finishes off her homework during the lunch break when she knows she has practice sessions in the evening. Of course, it helps that her school—The Bombay International School—is very supportive of her extracurricular endeavours.

The best part about swimming competitively is “standing on the podium and hearing your name being announced, followed by the state you belong to (Maharashtra in this case); it makes you feel proud”. On not so good days, she sometimes motivates herself by roaming around in her dad's team India jacket, though her paternal grandfather, whom she speaks to before every race “because he gives me strength” believes she should not be wearing a jacket with India emblazoned on it, till she has earned it.

“Swimming has taught me to never give up, to be determined and focused,” she tells us. While Michael Phelps is her number one idol, closer home are swimmers like Akanksha Vora from Maharashtra and Manna Patel of Gujarat, whom she looks up to. While she's considering taking up Sports Medicine or Bio Chemistry that will let her work with the water in the future, she also hopes to make it to the Olympics someday.
And perhaps she will. She seems to have the right amount of humility, determination, dedication and plain old common sense to deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, just like the song by The Script, that she listens to before every race to calm her nerves.

...You can go the distance
you can run the mile
you can run straight through hell
with a smile

You can be the hero
You can get the gold
Breaking all the records
that they never thought could be broke

Do it for your country
Do it for your pride
Never gonna know
if you never even try...

Read about other women who live, breathe and dream water:

Diver and marine conservationist Nayantara Jain http://dnai.in/cCvo

Award-winning sailor Rohini Rau http://dnai.in/cCvs

India's first female surfer Ishita Malaviya http://dnai.in/cCv5






 

 

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