She’s india’s fastest woman in the water, and the holder of multiple national swimming records, but Aditi Dhumatkar is incredibly humble about her achievements, even though she is extremely proud of them.
At the 2014 FINA World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Dhumatkar set the national record for the 50m and 100m freestyle. Nobody has yet been able to break those records, and the 24-year-old calls it a ‘brilliant experience’. She’s loath to get complacent about it, but “I saw it coming,” she says.
“When you train so ahrd, for so long, put so much into it, you sort of expect it. I saw the record coming, but that doesn’t mean I worked very hard towards it. Your performances are always reflexive of your training. If you work hard, train hard, you’ll see the results.”
“This specific record [the 50m national] was something I had anticipated, so I was extremely happy, but I really, really want to better that.”
She may be India’s fastest female swimmer, but Dhumatkar is also a dab hand at long-distance swimming events.
“I love sprint swimming [swimming that requires short, quick bursts of speed, like the 50m or 100m] but my first training, my first focus was on the long-distance swimming,” she says.
In 2014, Dhumatkar became the first Indian woman to swim 5000m. How did she make the shift, and how does she balance it?
“Honestly, I was always more of a distance swimmer. Swimming is an unconventional career, and distance swimming even more so. Rather than creating a balance between the two, I feel like it was a gradual process, a long one of transition for me.
It started off very well for me. In my teens, I was doing a lot of yardage, but I was also setting a very good pace for myself, and that was a big part of setting up the speeds I need as a sprinter. So instead of a shift as such, I think the distance swimming played a very big role in making me the sprint swimmer that I am today.”
Swimming, er, runs in the family. Dhumatkar’s older sister was also a swimmer, and swam in the younger age groups internationally. “I would hang out with my sister when she was training for competition, and she was already competing in age groups at 12. I’d just be near her, hanging out at the pool, and that’s when our mother decided I should also start training, learning.”
“So she put me into swimming class, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Here, someone offers Dhumatkar and the athletes nearby a plate of sandwiches. “Are those vegetarian,” she asks.
They’re not, and so she declines. Which brings us to another interesting point: a vast majority of professional athletes are non-vegetarian, and meat is often the quickest, most effective source of protein.
How does she manage?
“That’s true, but I guess in this case, it’s like striking a balance. You really have to get the right nutrition from the right sources, the right, the best kind of protein, amino acids, all of it. I wasn’t always a vegetarian, but food allergies led me to need to change my diet, make the move to being a vegetarian.”
“After I was diagnosed with those allergies, I was actually a pure vegetarian for five years, so I really think it’s a myth that you need to be a meat eater. Obviously it’s easier to get more, and better quality, protein when you’re a meat eater, but that doesn’t make it impossible for you to excel without it.”
On being a role model for young women
We’ve heard and read a lot about young women, younger than Dhumatkar and in her age group, who are increasingly blinded by media images of what mass media believes women’s bodies ‘should’ look like.
Dhumatkar addresses those issues. “I’ve heard people say certain types of exercise will bulk up your body, that controlling obsessively what you eat is good.”
“But the biggest problem with that is the lack of self-confidence. It’s very, very important to love what you are on the inside, rather than what you look like on the outside.
Once you love what you look like, it’ll reflect in the mirror . It’s so important to love yourself from within.”
“And it’s most important to be healthy. Have your levels, your blood work, normalized. That is what is going to benefit you in the future, that is what’ll help you. More than looking a certain way, it’s important to be healthy, to be fit, to feel good about yourself from inside.”
Dhumatkar is incredibly passionate about the issue. “Secondly,” she tells me, I feel it is very important for me to address this issue.”
“Those images you see, in magazines, on TV? A lot of people go by those images, those standards. Those are mostly photoshopped,” she says, addressing the young women out there who are most hit by these images. “Don’t base what you think you should look like based on the images you see. There’s editing, lighting, so much going on in those pictures, and they are not representative of what a body ‘should’ look like.’
In today’s day and age, she also reminds us of one key lesson. “Don’t go by images in mass media, by social media either; it’s all edited. It’s really not real, and don’t look at that as your ideal.”
Tennis superfan, loves Rafael Nadal
Not many know Dhumatkar is a massive tennis fan – and quite specifically a longtime Rafael Nadal supporter.
The King of Clay has had a career renaissance in 2016, after a lackluster 2015 and a poor start to the year. It’s his pet season – the clay court season, and Nadal has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
The Spaniard had just won his 9th Monte Carlo Masters title at the time of the interview, and was underway with the Barcelona Open – where he would also eventually take his 9th title. In 2015, he said 2016 would be his comeback year – and although the Australian Open and the early part of the year did not go quite to plan, it appears the rest of the year certainly has.
Understandably, Dhumatkar is thrilled. I ask her the all-important question – Is this the comeback year for Rafael Nadal?”
“Oh my god,” she says, clearly enthusiastic at the mention of her favourite player. “I have goosebumps that you’re asking me this. I love him, he is my sporting idol. He is my favourite of all time, and it’s been a struggle for me to see my favourite player struggling as Nadal has over the past year.”
“He’s been so, so good on clay, and last French Open…” her voice breaks slightly, but the passion is unmistakable. “This year, I heard so many people talk about how Nadal only won the title in Monte Carlo because Djokovic crashed out, that’s not true.”
Djokovic, who had a first-round bye at the Monte Carlo Masters this year, sank to 55th ranked Czech ace Jiri Vesely in a shock three-set upset, one that would be the surprise of the tournament.
“That’s not true, though,” she repeats. He had some strong fights on his way to victory, and he came back strongly each time. He beat a lot of tough players. I’m keeping my fingers, toes, everything crossed that he wins more titles (he did!) and that the Roland Garros trophy is lifted by him this year.”
“I definitely think Nadal can win another Grand Slam,” she says. “He’s someone who has come back from hardship, physical and mental injury. You can never say never for someone who is that great, that accomplished. As a fan, and as a tennis lover, I just love to watch him play to the absolute best of his ability, and whatever results that yields, it yields.”
I love Wimbledon, she says, but I love Nadal so clay is my favourite.
Funnily enough, the one athlete across sport Dhumatkar would love to take to dinner is a tennis player – but it’s not Nadal! “That would have to be Roger Federer,” she says. “He’s incredibly talented, so down to earth. And to be playing that level of tennis repeatedly, for so long, takes something incredibly special. Definitely Federer.”
She feels a special connect with the player. “He’s so much older than his contemporaries and still matching them every step of the way and excelling,” she says. “And I feel solidarity with that. I’m ‘old’ by swimming standards, by Indian standards,” the 25-year-old says. So many people ask me “When are you going to stop swimming, work, when are you going to retire? So I feel like I understand somewhat what he’s going through.
On to her swimming idols, it’s a bit closer to home. “My personal swimming idol is my own training buddy, Sandeep Sejwal. He pushes me to do my best, but he’s also always yanking my chain! He’s brilliant as well, so watching him train inspires me.”
Swimming in India and obstacles
There’s something everyone should know. All these swimmers at today’s event have all achieved laurels internationally, against some of the best in the sport. And they’ve done it despite the foreign athletes having far superior facilities.
And so it’s sort of like they’re starting on an even lower rung than those athletes, really, in terms of facitlities. There is a lot of development required, but I do see some change happening, and I’m positive about the future.
We could produce similar, or even better results if we had facilities on par with foreign academies.
What’s the answer? “investment, definitely, the belief in these athletes, and the support they need. They need to know they have the support they need. We also need to start from the grassroots, really, in terms of honing talent. It’s not just elite sponsorship. Training a 100 grassroots level swimmers can yield at least 20 champions!”
Future goals
What’s on the horizon immediately? “Senior nationals,” she says. “Other than that, I’m not thinking much for just now, but definitely want to go for the 2019 Asian Games, and definitely will continue training till then.”
Fun trivia? She’s scared of Jaws, but really enjoyed Finding Nemo. “If I had to be in one water-related movie, that would be it, she says.”
And just like him, she’ll just keep swimming.
