I need to get better at starts: Dhinidhi Desinghu

Rohit Mitra 

New Delhi: Bengaluru resident Dhinidhi Desinghu has emerged as one of India’s most promising young swimmers after she won two medals at the recent Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

The 16 year old won the Bronze after registering a national record of 56.27 at the 100 m event on November 2, she followed it up with another third place finish at the 200 m event with timing of 2.02 four days later.

The Class XI student has become the first Indian swimmer ever to win a medal at the Youth Olympics.

Speaking at an online press interaction organised by Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Tuesday Dhinidhi said that she has worked hard on her technique but her starts have to get better

“I worked a lot on my technique this year especially my turns, they have got better improved my timing. I tend to finish my races pretty well, now I intend to improve my starts now.”

Dhinidhi, who won gold, silver and bronze in 200m, 100m and 400m freestyle events respectively at the Asian Age Group Championships in Bangkok in July said that initially she felt disappointed with the Bronze medal in Dakar

“I either wanted a Gold or have a 55 finish, a below 56 finish has been my aim this year, however neither of the two happened, so I was disappointed for a while.”

When asked about what was going on in her mind when she was fifth at the halfway point of the 100 meter race, the Nihar Ameen coached athlete said

“I was hungry for the medal, I had a strategy of going very fast in the first 50 m, which did not happen. The closing 50 is my stronger point, I think even till 75 meters I was 4th or 5th. Third place finish happened during the last 15-10 meters. I just put my best foot down, I gave all that I had at the end.”

She highlighted that internal motivation and discipline are key to success for an athlete

“Discipline cannot be imposed from outside, it has to come from within. I have been hyper focused since an early age. I am very motivated as a person. I usually come 15 to 20 minutes early to training, there have been instances when people have deliberately called me to trainning 30 minutes late because they know that I am going to come early anyway.”

She emphasised the importance of having sports science and good coaching at the grassroots level

“Swimming is a very technical sport, it is not merely about kicking and moving your arms, there are so many fine details that seem complicated even to me, there is so much which foreign swimmers have learnt at the grassroots itself at a very young age.”

Dhinidhi said that she has always been extremely competitive in nature and swimming helped her channelise that energy in the right direction

“Initially I was not into sports, I was scared of water, I would just like to be alone in my room, my parents had to get into the water to get me started. I have always been very competitive as a kid and swimming channelised it in a very good way.”

She explained how watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on television sparked her swimming ambitions

“I had started winning junior and sub junior competitions, I was even close to breaking the boys records but what really spurred my ambition was when I watched the Tokyo Olympics on TV. I thought that I also want to be there, that is when I became really serious and within three years, I was part of the Indian Olympic contingent!!.”

At 14 years of age, Dhinidhi was the youngest member of India’s Paris Olympics contingent in 2024. She was also the youngest member of the Indian contingent at the 2022 Hangzhou.

After being back from the youth Olympics she will be taking a short break and plan her future

“I need to back off from swimming so as to recover physically and mentally, several important meets are coming up next year and I will plan for the next two years during this break.”

Dhinidhi currently holds eight national records, outranking all other contemporary Indian swimmers.

She stressed that when it comes to swimming, India has a lot of catching up to do, “In terms of Sports science in India, we are behind by like 30 to 40 years, and I am not even exaggerating because when we look at our present records, these are comparable to the world records that were set 30 to 40 years ago. There is something called swimming inflation- while other countries get 1 per cent better every year, we have to get 4 to 5 per cent better every year in order to catch up. Look at men’s breast stroke record, Sandeep Sejwal’s record is still standing since long, no one even is coming close to breaking it.”

She fondly recalled her meeting with South African swimming legend Chad le Clos at the Dakar games

“The day before my 100 metre final, I got to know that he(Chad le Clos) is in the gallery along with his family. I went to the gallery and took a photo with him, when I was going, he called me back and gave me a pin. It was touching, I felt very lucky and it also gave me some of a confidence. He said all the best to me, the way he spoke to me, it was as if he knew me well, it was not as if he was talking to a stranger, or maybe talks with everyone the same way.”

Dhinidhi also expressed gratitude to her sponsors during the interaction, “swimming is a costly sport, even a racing suit cannot be used more than 5 to 6 times, on top of that their is coaching, gymnasium, psychologist, nutritionist and everything. I am lucky to get government support through the TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme), the non profit Olympic Gold Quest and from Bajaj. Having these sponsors makes me mentally free, I don’t have to depend on my parents, a lot of swimmers are unable to continue because they don’t have sponsors and their parents are not able to finance their sporting endeavours.”

Apart from her exploits at the swimming pool, Dhinidhi is also a very bright student, she scored 93 per cent during her class X boards, going against the advice of many, she opted for the science stream.

It takes very high discipline for balancing studies with swimming, yet when asked whether she misses the life of a regular teenager she nods her head

“This is something that I choose, it is not easy but I try to enjoy it, if I have to be like any other person, there would be nothing special about that.”