Virdhawal Khade is an icon in swimming in India. He is one of very select few to have won medals on an international stage in India and some of the records that he set years back are yet to be broken, a testament of his skill and brilliance.
Nonetheless, Vir as he popularly known, has not enjoyed all the success that he deserved due to circumstances or missteps. At the peak of his career, after a superlative high of winning a medal at the Asian Games when he won bronze in the 50 metres butterfly, clocking 24.37 seconds, Vir seemed to have disappeared from centrestage. He was the youngest Indian swimmer to ever participate in Olympics in 2008, but was missing in action in 2012 and despite his attempts, he couldn’t make it to 2016. He came to swimming with a gusto and started training with vengeance at the Dravid-Padukone Complex in Bangalore under the watchful eyes of Nihar Ameen. He was cruising along with his plans and seemed all set to make a major splash at the Tokyo Olympics. In fact at the 2018 Asian Games, he missed the podium by a whisker. Things seemed rosy for the Kolhapur boy at last.
But fate thought otherwise. The COVID Pandemic laid a spanner to his plans and Vir was unable to pursue his training in the manner he deemed fit. Finally, after much desperation and implorations, came the shocker from him as he decided to hang his swimming goggles.
While Vir’s retirement saddened the swimming fraternity, there was a twist in the tale. Virdhawal Khade decided to don the coach mantle, his goggles and cap would be replaced by the whistle and stopwatch. He started to coach a select batch of swimmers (including his wife) at the Khar Gymkhana.
Vir has brought a certain kind of aggression and persistence to swimming in Maharashtra. While the pools were closed, he was trying everything in his capacity to ensure that his swimmers were able to train. So based on all the information collected from the network. Virdhawal and his team first shifted to Thane to train, when the pools in Mumbai shut. When Thane pools were shut, he shifted base to Pune and trained there. When Pune was closed, he apparently moved to Chennai and trained his team. Chennai too was shut and the swimmers shifted base to Vadodara.
At the state trials, Vir carries himself with panache guiding and goading his select swimmers to attain glory and win. Unlike his leaner self, he seems more like a wrestler now. But his domineering figure still commands respect. Parents and swimmers look at rapt attention to his actions and those of his wards. He is sure to make a splash as a coach in the upcoming national competitions.
And this should be great news for swimming in India. With his years of acumen and experience, Virdhawal Khade is best suited to guide Indian swimmers to the next level. He has gone through the hardships, learnt his lessons, now it is time to give back to the sports. He will certainly not be the first Olympian to don the coaching mantle, Nisha Millet runs her own academy, his compatriot Sandeep Sejwal is coaching at Dolphin Aquatics. Yet, there’s no denying the fact that Vir has been the most successful swimmer in India’s history. And if he decides to take up coaching like he took to the sports, he might just be the catalyst that was required for the sports.
Just like Pullela Gopichand revitalised Badminton in India by setting up his academy in Telangana in 2008, that has given us a host of badminton champions like PV Sindhu who are considered to be world beaters.
Swimming in India too is at that critical juncture that possible badminton was a decade or more back. We need heroes, we need champions, we need a flag-bearer. If and when a swimmer from India will break the glass ceiling, it will set off a chain reaction that will follow.
The big question is that could Vir do for swimming what Pullela did for badminton? Now, that is a question that is bursting with possibilities. We will know the answer to that in the days to come. Possibly, Vir can take a few notes from Pullela in person, after all he was supported by the GoSports Foundation as he aimed to bring glory for India.
But whatever be the outcome in the short-run or log-run, the swimming as a sports will immensely benefit in India if the likes of Virdhawal Khade or Rehan Poncha decide to share their knowledge and experience with the younger lot and thereby shorten the learning curve. Now that should be a welcome shift.