Asian Aquatics Championships: Splash of reality

Bengaluru: Congratulations are in order for Indian swimmers, who scripted history at the recently concluded Asian Aquatics Championships in Ahmedabad. With a record haul of 12 medals (four silver and eight bronze), this was India’s best-ever showing, surpassing the seven medals they won back in 2009.

It wasn’t just about the numbers, but also about the confidence this young crop exuded in front of a home crowd.

Bengaluru’s ace swimmer Srihari Nataraj was the standout performer, grabbing seven medals, including three silver; the most by any Indian at a single Asian meet. Rohit Benediction bagged three medals while Bhavya Sachdeva emerged as the lone woman to feature on the podium.

Veterans Sajan Prakash, Kushagra Rawat and Akash Mani chipped in too, helping India finish 11th on the medal table. The results not only made fans proud but also saved the blushes of the organisers hosting the event for the first time.

For the aesthetics, a big share of the credit must go to Ahmedabad, which showcased its world-class infrastructure through the ₹825-crore Veer Savarkar Sports Complex. The Aquatics Centre, equipped with two world-standard pools built by the same company that installed pools for the Paris Olympics and several World Championships, left athletes and coaches from across Asia visibly impressed.

“The infrastructure is as good as you see anywhere else in the world and took us by surprise too,” said Japan’s head coach Kazuhiro Ooyanagi. “We were provided with every facility a visiting team could ask for, and the hospitality was admirable too.”

That’s promising news for Ahmedabad, which is in the middle of an infrastructure revamp after formally submitting its bid for the 2036 Olympics. However, it would be premature to call the Naranpura complex “Olympic ready”. Legendary Australian coach Michael Bohl, who was in Ahmedabad as an advisor to China’s high-performance centers, offered a more realistic view.

“I think the facility itself has been very good and can hold an Olympic very easily,” Bohl said. “The only thing they are lacking is another 50m pool because Olympic standards require two 50m pools.”

Beyond that, the seating capacity of the Aquatics Centre (just 1,750) remains a limitation. For context, similar Olympic venues over the past three editions have hosted 15,000 spectators or more.

So while Ahmedabad has made huge progress, the road to Olympic-level readiness is still long.

However, building Olympic-quality facilities won’t fix the deeper issues that plague Indian swimming. The medal count may paint a rosy picture, but the reality of India’s performance levels remains miles behind Asia’s powerhouses.

In truth, India’s medal success partly came because the event wasn’t a top priority for countries like China, Japan and Korea. The Koreans skipped the meet altogether, while China and Japan sent mostly their junior contingents.

“Most of the top Chinese swimmers are missing from the event because they are preparing for the Chinese National Games in six weeks’ time. I saw this event as an opportunity to warm up for the Games too,” said Qin Haiyang, the reigning world champion and breaststroke world record holder.

Even then, the gulf in quality was hard to ignore. China still bagged 38 gold medals in 52 swimming and diving events, dominating with significant margins. For India, only a handful of performances -- notably Srihari’s -- looked good enough to meet the Sports Ministry’s new qualification standards for the Asian Games, which is equivalent to top-six finishes in individual events and top-eight in team events of the last Asiad.

“The medal haul was encouraging as we exceeded expectations,” said India’s head coach Nihar Ameen. “But it will not be right to compare the timings with the Asian Games; it will be much faster next year.” His words reflect both optimism and caution; celebrating the progress, yet acknowledging how far India still has to go.

That brings up the big question: Why does India still trail behind countries like China, who have turned into a swimming powerhouse over the past 15 years? And more importantly, should India be investing so heavily in facilities like Naranpura without addressing the sport’s structural weaknesses?

Team captain Sajan Prakash offered some perspective.

“See, such high-performance pools are needed because they give accessibility to elite swimmers to work on their technique,” said Sajan. “But we need a structured swimming programme that starts at the very basic (age-group level) if we want to reach the top. We need a shift in understanding the sporting culture.”

Currently, an aspiring Indian can begin swimming quite young; often before starting school. They can start competing from age 10 in sub-junior categories and continue through the senior ranks by 18. Among all states, Karnataka remains the heartbeat of Indian swimming, with Bengaluru’s academies drawing top talent from across the country.

While starting early helps and is ideal for grassroots development, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) has often been accused of not doing its part. As the national governing body, its role extends beyond event management; it’s supposed to nurture the ecosystem for swimming, diving and water polo. Yet, the federation’s recent handling of the Asian Aquatics gave a glimpse of their functioning, or lack of it.

From announcing the squad just hours before the opening event to mismanaging race timings that caused multiple delays, the SFI’s disorganisation was on full display. Several athletes, including foreign ones, expressed surprise over such delays.

Some Indian swimmers even revealed they were told late at night or early morning about their participation in specific races, leaving them scrambling to prepare with barely an hour’s notice.

“We didn’t know which events we were swimming until the last moment,” said one participant on conditions of anonimity while reflecting on just how chaotic things were behind the scenes.

Adding to the problems was the quality of food served at the so-called national camp. Many athletes called it “non-athlete friendly.” What was billed as a “one-month high-performance camp” turned into a test of endurance off the pool as well.

And yet, despite the chaos, the swimmers delivered. The young squad managed to produce India’s best-ever performance on home soil, proving that talent and grit can thrive even in adversity. Regardless of the absence of big Asian names, the Indian swimmers still had to fight hard against opposition from the rest of the continent.

The Asian Aquatics Championships may have painted a rosy picture of Indian swimming, but it also exposed how far the system needs to evolve.

From age-group development to federation accountability, the path ahead is long. But for now, this medal-laden week in Ahmedabad offers a glimmer of hope that Indian swimming, finally, is beginning to make its splash.

Bhavya Sachdeva. DH Photo

Srihari Nataraj. 

Srihari Nataraj prepares for the men