New Delhi. Realizing her dream of representing India at the Olympics, Mana Patel aims to become the first Indian woman swimmer in 17 years to compete at the Asian Games this year. Earlier in 2006, Shikha Tandon represented India in the Doha Asian Games. Mana was the only Indian woman swimmer in the Tokyo Olympics. In this, Mana got Universality Quota. Under this quota, one male and one female swimmer from a country are allowed to participate in the Olympics despite not qualifying.
The 23-year-old Mana is looking to end India’s 17-year absence by qualifying for the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China from September. “My target right now is to do well in the Asian Games qualifiers. I have finished 8th for 200m backstroke (the same time as the 8th place swimmer in the last Asian Games) but my aim is to lower my time and automatically qualify with a 6th place time. ,
Mana has bettered the eighth place qualifying time set by the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) and is trying to reduce a few more seconds to achieve the sixth place time. The SFI has set a better time than the sixth-placed swimmer from the previous Asian Games for automatic selection to the Hangzhou Asian Games. Mana had done well in the Senior National Swimming Championships last year by winning four gold and two bronze medals.
He then won three gold, two silver and one bronze medals in the National Games. After last season, Mana had to undergo two surgeries simultaneously. He had to undergo tonsillectomy (between throat and mouth) and nasal septum (nose) surgery. Mana said, “During the National Games, I started falling ill. There was severe pain in the throat. It was difficult to eat food and even swallow liquids and I had these problems again and again so I went to a specialist doctor, where I was diagnosed with chronic tonsillitis. There was a problem due to which I was having difficulty in breathing. The doctors advised me not to do both the surgeries at the same time but I didn’t want to be away from the pool for too long.
