Five greatest Indian swimmers of all-time

Sajan Prakash currently holds the national record in the 200m butterfly category.

Swimming is one of the five sports being played at the Olympics since its inception in 1896. India has not won a medal at the Olympics to date but for the past few years, swimming in India has been on the rise in both the men's and women's sections. Indian swimmer Srihari Natraj recently finished 5th at the Commonwealth Games in the 100m backstrokes along with creating a National Record.

Michael Phelps from the USA is regarded as one of the best swimmers in the world. He won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics which is a record for a single athlete.

In this article let us look at the top five swimmers from India:

Sajan Prakash

Sajan Prakash the 29-year-old from Kerala has represented India in both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He is among the two Indians to make the Olympics cut with a FINA "A" grade qualification mark. Until Tokyo, the Indian swimmers would only cross the B qualifying mark and make it to the Olympics through the Continental quota. But at Tokyo, both Sajan Prakash and Sri Hari Natraj broke the barrier and qualified.

Sajan Prakash holds the National Record with a time of 1:56.38 in the 200 m butterfly which made him qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Virdhawal Khade

Virdhawal Khade first competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 50m, 100m, and 200m freestyle where he went on to set a National Record in the 100m freestyle. His other achievement was winning the bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou.

Khade is also the youngest ever Indian swimmer to qualify for an Olympics to date. But the sad part was that even though he won the heats at the Beijing Olympics couldn't make it to the semi-finals as he was ranked outside the top 16. In athletics, the fastest in the heats qualify for the next round which is not the case with swimming. Khade was preparing to take part in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but due to the pandemic could not practise and failed to take part in any swim meets further.

He went on to win the Arjuna Award the highest sporting honour after the Dhyan Chand award in 2011.

Bhakti Sharma

Bhakti Sharma was an Open water swimmer and was the first Asian woman and the youngest in the world to set a record in open swimming in Antarctic waters. Sharma swam 2.3 km in 41.14 minutes, at a temperature of 1 °C (34 °F), breaking the record of Lynne Fox from the USA and Lewis Pugh from Great Britain.

Both the USA and Great Britain produce great swimmers and Bhakti created this feat by beating the strongest nations. Bhakti Sharma has also swum across all the five oceans of the world.

For her stupendous career, Sharma was awarded the Tenzing Norway National Adventure Award in 2010. Tenzing Norway was one of the two people to have climbed Mount Everest first. Bhakti Sharma now is a motivational speaker and has given several TED X talks.

Arati Saha

Arati became the first Asian women swimmer to swim across the English Channel in the year 1959. This was no mean feat and the government of India conferred her the fourth highest civilian award the "Padma Shri". Arati Saha became the first female sportsperson to receive the honour.

Arati was primarily a long-distance swimmer and it was Mihir Sen who had inspired her to cross the English Channel. Between 1946 and 1951 Arati won 22 state-level competitions in West Bengal in 100m Freestyle and breaststroke events.

She represented India at the 1952 Summer Olympics along with compatriot Dolly Nazir. She was one of the four women participants and the youngest member of the Indian contingent.

Shamsher Khan

Shamsher Khan represented India at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. His pet event was the 200m butterfly and broke the National Record twice in 1954 and 1955. It was the above two feats which made him qualify for the Olympics.

Shamsher finished 6th in heat 2 eventually exiting the qualifying round in 1956. Shamsher Kahan served the Indian Army for 24 years and was involved in both the 1964 India-China and 1971 India-Pakistan wars. He held the post of Subedar during his retirement and is "India's forgotten hero".