Kenisha Gupta holds out hope to the Indian swimming community. Over the past couple of years, the six-footer from Mumbai has drawn attention as India’s brightest prospect. For a nation starved of success in the Asian Games swimming competitions, she intends to enjoy the pursuit of the lofty goals she has set for herself. It will be a good journey to watch.
To be sure, the 17-year-old has a medal at the 2024 Olympic Games as her larger goal – “It can change so much for so many girls in our country” – but is aware that she has to cross many milestones on the way. “I love to set targets and pursue them, but I also love racing. And if I can keep doing that, I know I can get better times in international meets,” she says.
If all goes well, she will head to the Northwestern University in Illinois, United States, to take up the challenge of balancing swimming with medical studies. “Many others have done it before me, and it is not impossible. I am a planner, but I will take it as it comes. I have spoken to the coaches and they have assured me the best support,” she says.
She knows the importance of doing well in the Asian Games. For, her coach at the Otters-Dolphin Club in Mumbai, Sandeep Sejwal, is the last Indian to win an Asian Games medal (2014). “It is one of the highest meets in Asia. My College coaches have already assured me that they will support me in my quest to do well in the Asian Games,” she says.
The enormity of the challenge ahead of Kenisha becomes clear when you consider that it has been a long while since India fielded a woman swimmer in the Asian Games. Worse, no woman swimmer has got the Arjuna Award since Shikha Tandon in 2005 and no swimmer has got it since Sandeep Sejwal in 2012.
Let us digress a bit from Kenisha and take a look at other talent that can take Indian swimming to the next level. There is a lot riding on backstroke specialist Srihari Nataraj, who experienced racing in Asian Games finals in 2018 and, with the right guidance and encouragement, can take his game to the next level.
Even as Sajan Prakash fights to keep his pre-eminent place in the Indian team, other youngsters like breaststrokers Likith SP and S Danush, middle- and long-distance freestyler Kushagra Rawat, Mihir Ambre, Supriya Mondal and Tanish George Mathew, Neel Roy, Aryan Makhija and Aryan Nehra who are eager to step up the plate and make India’s presence felt on the international stage.
The likes of Shivani Kataria, Rujuta Khade, backstroke specialists Maana Patel, Ridhima V Kumar, Suvana C Baskar, Apeksha Fernandez, Divya Satija are some female swimmers on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of carrying India’s hopes forward. Yet, it would appear that Kenisha Gupta has the best chance of making it count at the Asian level in the next couple of years.
“I don’t think that certain times are impossible to achieve,” Kenisha Gupta says, drawing attention to winning the 100m Freestyle crown in the 2018 National Championships in Thiruvanthapuram not long after recovering from Dengue fever. She also clocked a personal best of 57.72 seconds in Malaysia in April 2019 a month after her board examinations.
In fact, some research may establish that her time of 57.71 seconds achieved on September 27, 2019 in the Asian Age Group Championships in Bengaluru as the fastest 100m Freestyle by an Indian woman. The National Record, listed by the Swimming Federation of India, is said to have been set at 57.00 seconds by Olympian Shikha Tandon in Singapore in 2008.
In fact, Shikha Tandon clocked 58.09 seconds for a new National record in the Australian Championships in Sydney on March 27, improving on 58.32 she had clocked in the World Championships in 2003. She then lowered it to 57.98 in Malaysia in May and clocked 58.26 seconds in Singapore in June.
To be fair to Kenisha Gupta, her parents and coaches, none of them has even whispered a claim on the National Record. She will own it sooner than later. It reflects her approach to swimming – and to life at large – that she makes no vain boasts, does not build castles in the air. Just the right touch of confidence in her own talent, skill sets and the development pathway she has chosen.
In fact, 2019 was special as she showcased speed and, more importantly, an amazing consistency. That can be gauged from the fact that World Swimming Federation (FINA) website attributes seven of the 10 fastest times by an Indian woman in 50m and 100m Freestyle events and four of the 10 fastest times by an Indian woman in 200m Individual Medley event to her.
It earned her a spot in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ Target Olympic Podium Scheme as a Development Athlete – the first woman swimmer to get such support. It was fair to expect her to continue making progress in 2020 but then the year was far from perfect for anyone. “Obviously I immensely missed swimming, but I knew I would get back. I focused on what I could control so that I could improve with the resources that I had when I returned to the pool,” she says.
She is full of confidence when she says she does feel any pressure when speaking about wanting to be the first Indian swimmer to win an Olympic medal. “If anything, it strengthens me,” she says. Since swimming, especially for females, has not been completely explored in the country, India will have reason to celebrate if she makes it to the Asian Games final or three next year.
There will be a day when the long-limbed girl Kenisha Gupta will soak in the adulation, but it is a good guess that she will remain low-profile when out of the pool, focused on her work and her goals, but enjoying each moment of the journey.
