Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College: For Indian para-swimmer Himanshu Nandal, the disappointment of finishing fourth in the men’s 100m backstroke at the Asian Para Games 2026 was so great that he had to convince himself to move on. That mental reset helped the 22-year-old bounce back to complete a hat-trick of bronze medals in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Nandal, who was particularly eager to perform well in the backstroke event, said the result initially hit him hard. He has five events left in his campaign but opted to look forward instead of back at the missed opportunity.
“The 100m backstroke was one of my main events, and I was looking forward to this event for the last two years. I wanted to compete in the 100m backstroke and clock my personal best because I'm really passionate about this event. However, I don't know; my body did not switch on that day. It did not connect, and I could not clock a personal best, and it hit me on that day,” Nandal told IANS in an interview.
“However, the next day, I just tried to convince myself, and it worked, that I need to focus on more events because I've got five more events remaining. It did continue in the background, but I worked harder for the next events and focused on what was coming next for me,” he added.
The shift in focus paid dividends as Nandal went on to win bronze in the men’s 400m freestyle S11, 100m breaststroke S11 and 100m freestyle S11 events, becoming one of India’s top para-swimming performers at the Games.
His last medal was in the 100m freestyle on Friday, where he finished third in 1 min 5.90 sec behind Japan's Uchu Tomita, who won gold in a Games-record 58.22sec, and China's Chuanzhen Sun, who took silver in 58.70sec.
Nandal had begun his medal-winning run on Tuesday with a time of 5:10.91 in the 400m freestyle, before securing another bronze in the 100m breaststroke. Looking back at his three podium finishes, he identified the breaststroke as the most challenging race, with the difference between bronze and fourth place extremely narrow.
“The best one and the challenging one, I would say, was the 100m breaststroke because the gap between bronze and fourth position was very small, just in microseconds, and it was like by a hair,” he said.
“The 400m freestyle was challenging as well because I was bouncing back from the day-one disappointment, and I had to do well. And, yeah, that worked. Till now, it is three medals, and all three are bronze medals.”
For Nandal, the three medals are more than just a good week in Japan. They are another step in a sporting journey that started in judo and then moved to swimming in 2021, culminating in him getting to the international stage and achieving his landmark qualification.
Born blind as a result of optic nerve failure, Nandal grew up in Rohtak, Haryana, in a family with a sporting background. His father had played hockey at the national level, and sport was very much part of his life from an early age. He moved to Delhi at the age of four and joined the National Association for the Blind, where he learnt Braille.
He initially pursued judo and won medals at the national level before turning to swimming. The transition, he said, was driven by his growing interest in the sport and encouragement from swimming coaches who believed he had the potential to excel in the pool.
“After I left judo, I was really interested in swimming, and my father was getting recommendations from swimming coaches to make me try swimming. They assessed me in the water and did say that I'll do well in swimming,” he said.
The change did come with its own set of problems, though. Nandal remembers having his own set of difficulties in the transition, including water allergies, which were a problem as he went about establishing himself in the new sport.
His progress continued to accelerate over the years. In 2024, he became the first Indian blind swimmer to achieve the Minimum Qualification Standard for the Paris Paralympics. He went on to gain further international experience and reached two finals at the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore.
A graduate in political science from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi University, Nandal is also looking at doing further study in sports management. He wants to marry his academic interests with the sport which has been such a big part of his life.
“I'm considering sports management because it will be fun to study something about sport, because I'm living it practically as well. So, it'll be fun to do it both ways,” he said.
Competing in the S11 classification, which is for swimmers with visual impairment, Nandal follows a training routine similar to that of other swimmers, with additional assistance to help him navigate the pool safely and maintain his line.
“The training is pretty much normal, but the only difference is the two tappers standing on both sides of the pool. If there are no two tappers available, then one tapper has to walk about four kilometres or as long as the workout is,” he explained.
“As we cannot see, we have to move with the lane lines, hugging them and touching them after every third or fourth stroke. So, that's mostly what's different. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same.”
Having established himself among India's leading para-swimmers, Nandal is now focused on improving his timings, believing that consistent progress will bring him closer to the top of the podium.
“As we cannot see, we have to move with the lane lines, hugging them and touching them after every third or fourth stroke. So, that's mostly what's different. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same.”
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Article Source: IANS