Even before she makes the trip to Paris, Dhinidhi Desinghu will have a certain distinction. At 14, the budding swimmer from Bengaluru will be the youngest athlete in the Indian contingent for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
Desinghu, who is slated to compete in the women’s 200m freestyle event, will become the second youngest Indian Olympian in history when she dips in the pool at the Paris La Defence Arena on July 28. Aarti Saha, who competed at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, holds the distinction of being the youngest Indian at the Olympics at the age of 11 years.
With no Indian swimmer attaining the A or the B qualification time for the Paris Games, Desinghu was awarded the Universality quota by the Olympic Games Tripartite Commission alongside the experienced Srihari Nataraj.
Desinghu may not have secured a direct quota, but, given her age, and her “distinctive technique,” there is plenty of promise from the teenager.
“She is one of the very few in India to swim with the straight arm technique only,” said Nihar Ameen, one of India’s most decorated swimming coaches who has overseen the youngster at the Dolphin Aquatics academy in Bengaluru, to Scroll.
“Coach BM Madhukumar has put in a lot of work behind this to ensure Dhinidhi adapts to new changes quicker.”
Desinghu, a big fan of the American seven-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky, started swimming at the age of eight. She soon started putting in impressive performances in state level meets and joined Ameen’s Dolphin Aquatics a year later in 2019.
“Within six months of joining, Dhinidhi started to break age group national records,” Ameen, a Dronacharya awardee, said. “She has since gone from strength to strength.”
Though Desinghu is still just a ninth grade student, she is no stranger to world class competitions or multi-sports events. She was a part of the Indian contingent at the delayed 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. She also competed at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha earlier this year.
“She has swum at the World Championships and Asian Games,” said Ameen. “I don’t think the Olympics are going to be any different.
“The Olympics is all about the build up, the media hype. But once she is in the pool it is about nothing else but what she does the best – swimming,” he added.
Over the last year, Desinghu has established herself as the best Indian swimmer in the women’s section. She clinched the women’s 200m freestyle title – her event for the Paris Olympics – at the 2023 National Aquatics Championships with a national record time of 2:04.24s in Gachibowli, Hyderabad.
She also bagged a whopping seven gold medals as Karnataka dominated the swimming pools during the 2023 National Games in Goa.
“Dhinidhi has a great work ethic,” asserted Ameen, who was the assistant national coach of the United States swimming team from 1989-1992.
“She is extremely focused, hard working and is mature beyond her years,” he added.
Ameen, though, maintained that Desinghu, despite all her achievements at such a young age, has a long way to go.
“She has just started,” said Ameen. “Her technique is evolving, the training load is progressing, her body is slowly developing.”
India had two swimmers – Sajan Prakash and Nataraj – breach the ‘A’ qualification mark for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. But with none managing even the ‘B’ mark this time around, Desinghu’s prodigal rise could not have come at a better time for the country.
