At the recently concluded World Championships for Swimming at Fukuoka in Japan, Indian swimmers failed yet again to make a mark on an international meet. The World Championships in swimming are usually biennial events, held in between the Olympics. In many ways, the World Championships are considered to be a dress rehearsal for the summer Olympics. Usually, swimmers that score big at the World Championships are most likely to shine at the Olympics.
Though, to be fair Fukuoka 2023 can’t be dubbed as a dry run to the Paris Summer Olympics next year, simply because in an extraordinary quirk of things, there will be another World Championships in Doha in February 2024, just 4 months before the Paris Olympics. Thus, it is actually the Doha World Championships that will be the dress rehearsal for Paris 2024.
But coming back to India’s performance at the event. Of all the athletes, we managed to qualify only four swimmers for a handful of events. Aryan Nehra, Kushagra Rawat, Srihari Nataraj & Sajan Prakash, wore the Indian jersey at Fukuoka. The overall performance at the event by the Indian swimmers was disappointing, not because of how they fared in competition with some of the best swimmers in the world but rather because of how they fared in their own particular events. All of these swimmers are not only the best that we have in India, they also hold the national records for most of the events that they participate in. Thus, a personal best or a PB by them automatically means a new national record for most of us. Here is how they fared, the best rank that we achieved was 23rd by Sajan. The timing differences between the winners and our swimmers might seem small and achievable to many, but the ranks will tell the real story.
| Swimmer | Event | Fukuoka 2023 | Personal Best | Rank in the Heats | Gold Medallist Time |
| Aryan Nehra | 800M Freestyle | 08:00.76 | 08:00.76 | 27 | 07:37.00 |
| Aryan Nehra | 1500M Freestyle | 15:39.47 | 15:29.92 | 25 | 14:31.54 |
| Kushagra Rawat | 400M Freestyle | 3:59.03 | 3:53.45 | 35 | 3:40.68 |
| Srihari Nataraj | 50M Backstroke | 25.51 | 25.18 | 28 | 24.05 |
| Srihari Nataraj | 100M Backstroke | 55.26 | 53.77 | 31 | 52.22 |
| Srihari Nataraj | 200M Backstroke | 2:04.42 | 2:00.84 | 31 | 1:54.14 |
| Sajan Prakash | 50M Butterfly | 24.93 | 24.78 | 57 | 22.68 |
| Sajan Prakash | 200M Butterfly | 1:58.07 | 1:56.38 | 23 | 1:52.43 |
Yet, the timings by these swimmers in all the events barring one were off their PBs, Aryan Nehra created a new National Record in 800M Freestyle. This is rather surprising, because at an event of this magnitude when the whole world is watching you, and you are swimming beside some of the best swimmers on the planet, the adrenaline must surely kick in. If you can’t break your own PBs under such arc lights when else will you do it?
There is a stony silence at the moment in the Indian swimming fraternity. Everyone, from the Swimming Federation of India to the commentators are all quiet at the moment. Possibly waiting for the dust to settle down on the shoddy outing. There is the Asian Games in China in September and a few more in the offing before the Paris Olympics. It is also to be noted that no Indian swimmer has got the A-cut for the Olympics so far. These cuts can only be achieved from March 1, 2023, to June 23, 2024. Considering the paucity of World Aquatics’ approved meets, the window gets narrower with each passing international meet. For the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, India had managed to grab two A-cuts, with Sajan and Srihari qualifying for the events. Both qualifiers will need to drop their times to qualify for their events. 53.74 is for 100M Backstroke, and 1:57.50 is for 200M Backstroke for Srihari and 1:55.78 for 200M Butterfly for Sajan.
If the sport of swimming has to throw some winners in India, there needs to be a radical resetting. Rather than just focussing on a small set of 20-year-olds that have gone through the hoops of the national championships and earned a name, how about lowering the benchmark — finding a set of 40 swimmers in the age group of 12-14 years and grooming them with rigour, giving them training, nutrition and exposure. This could dramatically change India’s fortune. Remember, 20 years back when Japan had hosted the World Championships in 2000, it was a mere spectator with only a few swimmers of repute, and now it has become a swimming powerhouse, with a host of champions. This was done by investing in young talent early on and nurturing it.
In the end, it really pains to see, small countries like Tunisia and Mexico winning laurels at such meets and the most populous nation on the planet is unable to garner even a semi-final spot. Business as usual, cannot be the way forward. Hope someone, who can bring about such change is reading this piece and is inspired to do something about Indian swimming.