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Global Indianstory Indian archerTake a bow: India’s young sports stars are breaking records across the globe

Take a bow: India’s young sports stars are breaking records across the globe

Written by: Darshana Ramdev

(April 12, 2022) The youngest para-swimmer to swim the Palk Strait is also the fastest. She was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum and asked to try water sports as a form of therapy. With unparalleled courage and grit, Jiya Rai is now a world record holder. There’s also Neeraj Chauhan, the teenage archer who will make his world cup debut this year. During the pandemic, Neeraj, his brother and father, sold vegetables on a pushcart in their hometown, Meerut, to make ends meet. People who spotted the two young lads in their sports jerseys posted videos online… and the rest was history. India’s young sports stars have battled seemingly insurmountable odds, along with a lack of infrastructure and financial support, to create history, not just in the country but across the world. These are stories not just of sporting achievement and skill but of courage, determination and hope.

Jiya Rai, para swimmer

Young sports stars | Jiya Rai | Sonam Malik | Global Indian Youth

Jiya Rai

She clocked 28.5 kilometres in 13 hours. Thirteen-year-old para swimmer Jiya Rai is not just the youngest to swim across the Palk Strait, she is also the fastest. On March 221, 2022, Jiya, who is on the autistic spectrum, set off from Sri Lanka’s Thalamannar. Thirteen hours later, she arrived at Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu, where a large gathering, led by director-general of Police, C. Sylendra Babu, awaited her.

Completely sunburned and exhausted, but elated, Jiya posed with the Indian tricolour, flanked by two Navy officers holding up a banner bearing a message of congratulations from the Indian Navy. Jiya is the daughter of master chief of arms of INS Kunjali and beat the previous record holder by a whopping 52 minutes.

Jiya was diagnosed with autism when she was a little over two years old. It was her doctor who suggested water sports as a form of therapy. She took to it, as the cliche goes, like a fish to water.

The Lankan Navy provided the search and rescue cover to Jiya as she swam through Lankan waters, while the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard awaited the young star as she swam into Indian waters. She is also the youngest (and first autistic) girl to swim from Worli sea link to Gateway of India, a distance of 36 kilometres, in February 2021. In 2022, she received the Bal Puraskar award and is the world record holder open water swimming. Jiya hopes to be the first and youngest para swimmer in the world to swim the seven seas.

Lakshya Sen, badminton champ

Young sports stars | Jiya Rai | Sonam Malik | Global Indian Youth

Lakshya Sen was 16-years-old when he became a sensation in the badminton scene, playing his first international championship and reaching the quarterfinals of the Vietnam and Belgian Opens. In 2019, at the age of 18, he bagged four major international titles – the Belgian, Dutch, Saarlox and Scottish Opens. Two years later, he proved himself to be dynamite on the court once more, playing nine tournaments in a row and bagging the bronze at the World Championship in December. His game has only grown stronger since.

In 2022, he won the India Open, reached the finals of the German Open and was runner-up at the All-England Badminton Championship. The latter brought him widespread recognition and praise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in congratulating the young star, tweeting, “Proud of you, Lakshya Sen! You’ve shown remarkable grit and tenacity…,” Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi said he was “second to none,” and Mahindra Group chairperson Anand Mahindra called him a “prince who will be crowned sooner or later.”

He’s currently at the Korea Open Super 500 Badminton Tournament in Suncheon, South Korean. He has already surpassed local favourite Choi Ji Hoon, defeating him in just over an hour in the opening round match.

Ridhi Phor, archer

Ridhi’s coaching began when she was eight-years-old and her father was her first teacher. Today, at age 16, she has a separate room in her house just for her trophies and medals. And every success is celebrated by her doting family.

Young sports stars | Jiya Rai | Sonam Malik | Global Indian Youth

Ridhi Phor

Calling archery a lonely sport, as it is just the individual out there with their thoughts, Ridhi has worked diligently on her focus – she admits to speaking to herself a lot, and honing a positive mindset.

She was 14 when she participated in her first international competition, which was stage two of the Asia Cup in Manila in 2018. She brought home the bronze as a member of the women’s recurve and mixed recurve team. In the individual category, she finished seventh out of 30 contestants, the top Indian archer in her category. She bagged a silver at the Asia Cup in Taipei.

Neeraj Chauhan, archer

In March 2022, archer Neeraj Chauhan finished in the top three at the Asian Games selection trials in Sonepat. Now a part of the national squad, he is all set for his world cup debut this month, and is part of the team heading to the Hangzhou Games in September. And the 19-year-old archer’s story is nothing short of remarkable.

Young sports stars | Jiya Rai | Sonam Malik | Global Indian Youth

Neeraj Chauhan

Two years ago, his father, Akshaylal, who had spent the past three decades as a cook at Meerut’s Kailash Prakash Stadium, lost his job when the pandemic struck. His two sons – Neeraj and Sunil, both athletes – suddenly found they had to help the family make ends meet. They dropped their training and started helping their father sell vegetables on a push cart. In earlier interviews, Neeraj had revealed that he spent the Covid 19 lockdown selling vegetables with his family. Any free time he had was spent training at home with an indoor target, though he didn’t think he would get back to competitive archery again.

Life, however, did show him kindness. The two boys, who wore their respective jerseys as they sold vegetables, attracted public attention. People took videos and posted them on social media and before long, the press had arrived at their doorstep. Word of Neeraj’s plight eventually reached then union sports minister Kiren Rijiju. The ministry of youth affairs and sports responded promptly and both brothers were offered INR 5 lakh each, under the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay national welfare scheme. And that’s how Neeraj bought his first proper bow.

Sonam Malik, Olympic wrestler

Sleep deprived and exhausted, Sonam Malik arrived at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in 2021 with only one thing on her mind – the upcoming weigh-in. For the then 18-year-old from Sonipat, Haryana, not overshooting the 62-kilo mark was the only priority. The qualifiers were held at Kazakhstan and Sonam proved herself a star, narrowly winning her third bout after a superb comeback that secured her place in the Tokyo Olympics. She was the youngest Indian woman wrestler to qualify.

By this time, she had already won a gold at the National Games (2016). The following year, she bagged the silver at the Cadet National Championship, a gold in the World School Games and another gold at the Cadet World Wrestling Championship, all in 2017. In 2019, she won another gold at the same event.

At Tokyo 2020, she lost in the opening round. Disappointed, and a lesson learnt, she threw herself into training with added zeal. She set her sights on the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games but after a knee injury that happened at the semifinal bout in Tokyo, she has been forced to withdraw from the trials this year.

Sahith Theegala

Sahith Theegala

The pandemic nearly cut golfer Sahith Theegala’s glowing collegiate career year short, when he returned home during his senior year at Pepperdine. Although the season ended early, Sahith’s team ranked first in the nation. In 2020, he won the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award, becoming the fifth person ever to win all three awards in the same year. In June 2020, Theegala made his professional debut – in a rather unusual place. The Outlaw Tour might not have been what the collegiate golfing star had imagined but his stellar performance saved the day. Theegala’s e-under-par 62 gave him a share of the lead in round one, along with Andrew Funk at the Lone Tree Classic in Chandler, Arizona.

The 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie participated in the Genesis Invitational in February 2022, losing out to Scottie Scheffler at the very last moment. Tied for lead standing on the tee of the 17th hole, a poor chip led to a bogey and he conceded to Scheffler. Still, the PGA tour rookie came very close to displacing the stars. What’s more, he won many hearts after the game when he teared up, according to Golf Digest, with his “dad repeatedly telling him, ‘It’s OK’ as his son sobs on his mother’s shoulder.

In the current season, he made nine cuts in eleven starts. At the Sanderson Farms Championship, he was either leading or tied for the lead after each of the first three rounds, according to Golf Digest. He ultimately finished T-8.

 

 

 

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Published on 12, Apr 2022

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