The Olympic experience

No Zoroastrian has made it to the Olympics in swimming for over 50 years. Indeed few Indian swimmers have made the cut in recent years. At the Beijing Olympics, however, four swimmers represented India in different events.

Twenty-two-year-old Rehan Poncha has won several national titles, broken long-standing records and swum in FINA [Federation Internationale de Natation (International Swimming Federation)] meets. In the run-up to the Olympics, he failed twice to reach the timing required, finally making it at the last available attempt with a stupendous swim in Sydney (see "Poncha at the Olympics,” Sports, Parsiana, August 7, 2008).

Poncha swam in the 200 m butterfly heats at the Water Cube, where the competition was so intense that world and Olympic timings toppled even in the heats!

Rehan Poncha writes:

I arrived in Beijing, China on August 2, 2008 and happened to spend my birthday at the Olympics. What better present could one ask for! The Olympic Village was massive but not too many of the teams had got in yet. Day after day the crowd kept increasing. The dining hall could house several thousand athletes and every once in a while a high profile athlete would walk in and spend the next two hours giving autographs! We had our formal flag hoisting ceremony in the Village and were greeted by Sonia Gandhi (Congress Party leader) who wished us all well.

Then came the opening ceremony. I can say that without doubt it was the best one I have been to. The only negative was that we had to wait for three hours before marching in, but it was all worth it when we entered the Bird’s Nest. The feeling of pride and honor at being one of just 57 athletes to make it to the Indian team is hard to put down in words. When I walked into the arena, the lights, the crowd, hundred thousand of them, it just hits you and for that split second time stood still for me. I felt that all the years of hard work, the ups and downs, everything had paid off.

Just making it to Beijing was an achievement in itself because I ended up shaving over three seconds off my previous best time to get there (see "Poncha at the Olympics,” Sports, Parsiana, August 7, 2008). I raced in the 200m butterfly (heats) on the morning of August 11 and I was pretty happy with my swim. I would have liked to go quicker but also knew that I had already pulled out a lot to get there.

My parents were at the Water Cube and got to see me race at the Olympics and they deserved to be there as much as I did. Racing at the Water Cube was not too different from the other big international meets I have swum at, but being the Olympics it just feels a little more special.

The news about Abhinav Bindra winning a gold in shooting came in on the same day and I realized that an Indian winning a gold medal was not an impossible task after all.

Every day I would make it a point to go and watch other swimmers race and train as well. I saw all eight of Michael Phelps’ races and would watch him practice after my event was done. There is so much to learn from the top swimmers and I would call this Olympics "a learning experience” rather than just an experience, as everyone puts it.

I spent a week there after my event and got to watch other sports too. I saw Usain Bolt run the 200m (athletics) final which was simply superb. I watched other athletic events, basketball and diving. I spent time with other athletes as well and talked to some high level performers.

My family and my coach Pradeep Kumar went for the Great Wall tour and some cheap shopping. I ended up spending quite a lot of time with my roommate, swimmer Ankur Poseria (who trains in the US). Twenty days of the Village food not to mention the unlimited free McDonalds was getting a bit too much so we would go out and eat some authentic Chinese for a change.

Overall my stay at Beijing was unique, exciting and thrilling in a way that only 57 of us would be able to describe. At the end of it all I feel that the last 15 years have led up to this point and the journey was well worth it. But now the Olympics are over and I am working towards the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the 2012 London Olympics. Hopefully next time around it will be more than just an experience!

Kyra Shroff receiving trophy in Egypt (above) and with junior nationals awards in Madras

Rehan’s father Jehangir writes:

Rehan’s swim at Beijing for me was like an add-on climax to a movie I had already seen in Sydney when he qualified. We always knew that it had taken a supreme effort for him to qualify at the last possible minute after two abortive attempts earlier in the year. In Sydney everything went just right for him and the effort was so draining that he was running a temperature that day and much of the next.

Rehan, being Rehan however, was pumping himself up to go at least a second faster. Considering all this and the competition he faced in Beijing the whole trip was a vindication of his hard work.

Every moment of his event was for me a blur. I have no clear recollection of his swim as I watched it through tears in my eyes, just happy tears that he had got where he had wanted to so badly, for so many years and that one more rung on his ladder to the sky had finally been conquered. That he was half a second off his qualifying time meant little, that he had re-broken a 22-year-old (Indian) record twice over in the space of a month was icing on the cake.

I have no doubt that he has an endless climb ahead of him, but whichever step he finally rests on will not be the result of his acceptance of defeat. Whenever he chooses to hang up his trunks his father at least will know that he spared nothing, least of all himself, to get to where he finally closes this long and unbelievably proud chapter in all our lives.

One indication that the chapter may end up a book instead is that, after qualifying for Beijing, he is planning not one (as he did earlier) but two more Olympics, provided he says "my body does not give up on me.”

Rehan’s mother Shirin writes:

As I watched Rehan making his way to the blocks, my mind was not on how he would race or what time he would clock. All I could think of was what it took to get there. The Olympics had set a bar, a qualifying time, and Rehan had crossed that bar. That was the first step and an important one.

In all these years, Rehan has had many ups and downs and with him we have laughed and cried. He has been frustrated many times, but each time he fell he stood up. He has got the heart of a lion and we have learnt a lot from him. If I was asked to describe him in one word, that word would be ‘resilient.’ I feel privileged to be his mother and I am happy to have played a part in helping him get to the Olympics.

Kyra Shroff (third from left) with teammates at the 2007 junior Fed Cup in Malaysia

Calling the shots

Her victory in an under-18 Grade Two ITF (International Tennis Federation) tournament in Egypt on clay in August 2008 won her a huge number of singles points and skyrocketed her world junior tennis standings. Fifteen-year-old Kyra Shroff ranks at No 115 in the ITF Junior ranking (as of September 15, 2008).

"The Smash International Junior Championships Two in Cairo was the highest grade of tournament I had played in so far and emerging the winner has been a great confidence booster. I did not expect to win,” she says. On her way to the finals, Kyra defeated a WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) ranked player from Russia in the quarter finals, notes her father Firdaus. "When you overcome the challenge of some of the best players, you believe in yourself and play with much more confidence. Earlier, playing international tournaments was more for the experience and the exposure, now we would expect to win,” Kyra remarks.

A few days later, playing in Madras, Shroff won the Adidas National Tennis under-18 singles title, bringing her rank to No 1 in India in that category. Pitted against Shroff in the final was Aishwarya Srivastava, who is also her doubles partner and fellow trainee at the prestigious Nike Bhupathi Tennis Village and Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy in Bangalore. Earlier the same day, representing Maharashtra, Shroff and Srivastava had played the doubles final as well, but could not prevail over Rashmi Teltumbde and Tanvi Shah.

"The national title has given Kyra a great platform to catapult her career,” asserts Firdaus. This is Kyra’s third national singles title (in respective age groups) and she is also the proud winner of three national doubles titles, he informs Parsiana. "The icing on the cake is the call for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Here she will get a chance to rub shoulders with the big names in Indian and foreign tennis, giving her the exposure and experience any sportsperson would only dream about,” he declares.

Shroff has been chosen to play for India at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Poona from October 12. Thereafter the determined young player is scheduled to participate in more ITF level junior tournaments. "If she does well in them, she will improve her ranking into the top 50 in the world and this will get her direct entries into the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon next year,” states Firdaus.

Kyra credits her family for the "huge role” they have played. "If it wasn’t for them I wouldn't be here. My parents took a major decision to send me to a residential training academy (in Bangalore) far from home (Bombay) when I was only 10 years old. If I am doing well, it is due to my family and my three coaches — Prahlad Srinath, Mose Navarra and Balachandran Manikath, fitness trainers Sham Rao and Anil Raj and Australian physio Tony Beercroft. One coach, trainer and physio accompany me to tournaments,” she says.