At 14, Dhinidhi Desinghu, who competed in women’s 200m freestyle in 2024 Olympics, was the youngest Indian to participate in the Paris Games. The teenager showed her class earlier this year when she bagged 11 medals, including nine gold, to emerge as the Best Athlete in the Uttarakhand National Games.
With several important international events lined up in the coming months leading up to the 2026 calendar, which has the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Dhinidhi has been working on her overall development as a swimmer.
During the National aquatics championships at the Kalinga Stadium Aquatic Centre here, the Karnataka girl, now a 15-year-old, recalled her Games experience, how it felt to share the competition arena with global stars, and her dreams for the country. Excerpts:
How do you look back at your preparations for the Paris Olympics?
Obviously, trying to qualify for Paris 2024 wasn’t a major goal. Getting into the Olympics and representing the country is the ultimate goal, but I didn’t think that it was going to happen last year.
The preparation was going well, but I didn’t put too much stress on getting into it. I’m quite happy that I got the chance to represent India at the Olympics last year.
How was your experience at one of the biggest competitions in the world?
It wasn’t easy to get in and I sacrificed so much. I was happy that I got the chance.
It was inspiring to see all those Olympians and see how they take care of themselves before and after a race… what they eat, how they warm-up. We get to learn so much from them.
It was, honestly, an amazing experience getting to see them in person and watch them in action. It is something that you don’t really watch on TV. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. People dream of seeing them and I had the privilege to see them live.
What are the other learnings from that experience?
I learnt a lot like where do I start, how to properly execute my races by watching other people, how they do their races, what they eat before the race and how that improves their performance, and how much they rest. Every small aspect is really important. And how much technology they use going into their races. I hope that one day we, in India, go that way too and increase our chances.
Dhinidhi Desinghu won the 100m freestyle event.
| Photo Credit:
BISWARANJAN ROUT
Has the Paris participation boosted your confidence?
Obviously, I feel a lot more confident going into the meets. But we have to stay humble and make sure that we are not getting too over confident.
Sometimes (there’s) a little bit of pressure knowing that you are the Olympian. You have to show and make sure that you are on top, which is sometimes stressful. Trying to think that I am just 15 lets the pressure out when competing with older participants in the 23-24 age category.
This year you did really well in the National Games…
I wanted to do well in the National Games. My goal was to be the best Indian athlete and I worked really hard for it. Training countless hours in and out of the gym. Getting that best Indian athlete was an incredible achievement. I hope I get to do many more National Games and become the best Indian athlete again.
How do you look forward to 2026?
I focus on the present in order to make sure what is happening now goes well. We have the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games next year apart from many other competitions.
I have big goals for them. I have a knowledgeable and supportive coach, Nihar (Ameen) sir, who will take care of all the planning and training. I have a lot of people with me on my team to help me out through this journey. I’m just going to trust them.
I have a good chance in the Asian Youth Games. It’s in October. So I do have a shot at a medal there.
Any particular area where you’re working to improve your game?
My overall performance matters a lot, including the minute details from the race. It’s obviously not possible to execute a perfect race, but making only minor mistakes is the ultimate goal. We start by looking at it in the training sessions.
How about competing with swimmers who are much older than you?
I’ve been doing the senior Nationals since I was 12 years old. So I’m quite familiar with the people.
It isn’t really all that stressful nowadays. The more meets I compete in, the more confident I get with the people as they become familiar faces. That reduces the pressure a bit, making sure that I focus on my race and not care about how others are swimming. That’s important.
You are taking care of your body. But what about the mental training?
That is quite crucial. I have a psychologist (Shree Advani, the brother of billiards and snooker star Pankaj Advani) who takes care of it. I have worked with him for a year now. It has been going really well. He works with many Olympic athletes. I’m happy that he is on my team. He has been helping me mentally. I used to have a lot of panic attacks and fall sick before my events because of how scared I was. I have grown a lot since then.
What about funding?
I have a sponsor in Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ). I’ve also recently been in the TOPS development programme and they’ve been supporting me financially.
Who is your idol?
I look up to a lot of people. There are so many great swimmers – Summer McIntosh, Sarah Sjostrom, Katie Ledecky.
On the men’s side, too, there are a lot of inspiring people. There is not only one person whom I look up to. I look up to each person’s different strengths, strokes, skills (underwater)… I hope to develop by blending various styles and clinch gold at the Olympics some day. I really hope that I can change Indian swimming for women one day.
Published – July 01, 2025 11:49 pm IST
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