Meet 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu, India’s youngest athlete at Paris Olympics 2024

Dhinidhi Desinghu, 14, is a grade nine student and the youngest athlete in the Indian contingent for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Once she takes a dip in the women’s 200m freestyle event in Swimming at the Olympics 2024, Dhinidhi will become only the second youngest Indian athlete after Aarti Saha, who competed at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

For over seven decades now, Aarti was the youngest Indian Olympian at the Summer Games at 11 years old.

Whilenone of the Indian swimmers attained the A or the B qualification time for the Paris Summer Games, Desinghu was awarded the universality quota by the Olympic Games Tripartite Commission, with the seasoned campaigner Srihari Nataraj joining her.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Also, she may not have bagged a direct quota, but there's plenty in storefor the teenager, given her age and distinctive technique.

ALSO READ:Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen readies for tough Group, glory at Paris Olympics 2024

In an interviewwith Scroll, Nihar Ameen,who coached Desinghuat the Dolphin Aquatics Academy in Bengaluru, explained what separates her from the rest.

“She is one of the very few in India to swim with the straight arm technique only,”Ameen said. “Coach BM Madhukumar has put in a lot of work behind this to ensure Dhinidhi adapts to new changes quicker.”

The Indian swimming prodigy is a huge Katie Ledecky fan – a seven-time Olympic gold medal winner.

Desinghu began swimming when she waseight and soon garnered attentionwith her star performances at state-level meets.

In 2019, she joined Ameen’s Dolphin Aquatics and has been there since.

Up and ready for the Summer Games

Having performed at the delayed 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, Desinghu competed at the World Aquatics Championship in Doha earlier this year.

“Within six months of joining, Dhinidhi started to breakage group national records,” Ameen said. “She has since gone from strength to strength.”

“She has swum at the World Championships and Asian Games. I don’t think the Olympics are going to be any different.

“The Olympics is all about the build-up, the media hype. But once she is in the pool it is about nothing else but what she does the best – swimming,” he added.

Complimenting her for her work ethic, Ameen reflected on her performances and the accolades she won in the lead-up to the tournament. Besides winning gold at the 2023 National Aquatics Championships with a national record time of 2:04.24s, Desinghu dominated the 2023 National Games in Goa, where she won seven gold medals for Karnataka.

“Dhinidhi has a great work ethic,” Ameen said. “She is extremely focused, hard-working and is mature beyond her years.”

Far from a medal hope, Desinghu will use this chance as a learning curve and try pushing her limits at the Olympics.

(With inputs from agencies)