Indian sailing marked a milestone in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, where a four-member contingent, the country’s strongest ever, charted its way to the Summer Games.
In this team was a 24-year-old Nethra Kumanan. Not only was she the first Indian woman to make it to the Olympics, but also the first, out of the 14 who have borne India’s flag at the event, to seal a direct qualification.
More than a year since the big event, with the applause almost fading to silence and the limelight much more scarce, Kumanan wages on.
“Honestly, not everything is about results. I know it’s the Olympics, and everyone’s aiming for the gold medal. But we, at least the four of us (India’s contingent comprising Varun Thakkar, K.C. Ganapathy, Vishnu Sarvanan and Kumanan), went for the experience. To meet all the other athletes and hear all their stories was an incredible experience,” says Kumanan.
The sailor from Chennai plies the laser radial class of boat - single sail, one design, dinghy style - which requires just one person to operate. In Tokyo, after a course of 10 races, Kumanan finished 35th and failed to make the cut for the final.
Kumanan feels she let herself down with her performance. “I expected a lot, way too much out of myself, and I think that took away from what I could have shown,” she says.
Kumanan was in a similar fix in 2018 at the Asian Games, where she felt she put too much pressure on herself. She had made the top five in the first seven races but slipped outside the ranks in the final three, ultimately costing her a medal.
“I think as a person, I put a lot of pressure on myself. It has nothing to do with anything external. And I think it’s common with most athletes. It can be common to anybody in any profession trying to achieve something. They expect (a lot) out of themselves.
Varun Thakkar, Nethra Kumanan, Vishnu Saravanan & K.C. Ganapathy.
“When I started, my dad was putting out a lot, my family was sacrificing a lot, and I wanted to give back. I wanted it all to be worth that. If you try to put all that on one person, they are not going to be able to do anything. It was quite bad at the beginning, like I was training and was quite good, quite fast, but in racing, I would kind of freeze.”
Learning to not wither away in pressure is an ongoing process for Kumanan. With the help of a sports psychologist, the sailor has chalked out ways to understand her reaction to situations and keep a collected head in crunch moments.
“I was quite a negative person. That’s something I’ve been working on. We did exercises to heighten my awareness. We spent a couple of months digging into why I am the person I am, what my core beliefs are and why I react in certain ways to certain things, and I think that’s made a huge difference, and brought clarity.
“Right now, it’s about me communicating confidence and positivity for myself so that when something happens, I can move on from it, and fix it and keep going with the full trust that I know I can do something about,” says Kumanan.
Another challenge Kumanan has to ferry past is the lack of sailing facilities in the country. Despite the long coastline the Indian peninsula enjoys, sailing shores remain scant. A lack of sailing waters directly leads to competitive races being few and far between.
Even the few sailing clubs in Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad offer tropical climate conditions, vastly different from the colder, heavier settings at European and American venues that host major events.
It prompted her to shift base to Gran Canaria in Spain. Training at the European Sailing Academy, Kumanan is a part of Europe’s sailing circuit which helps her keep in touch with the sport in its truest form - racing.
“In our sport, you cannot (perform) if you’re not racing. The whole racing season is in Europe, and if you’re not there racing, you’re not gonna get better. We (at European Sailing Academy) are racing each other every single day, so we can keep that intensity high.” says Kumanan.
Having seen the standards in Europe, Kumanan fails to draw a timeline for when India could start replicating the levels. For now, the aim is to simply be consistent and help the sport develop back home.
“We managed to get to that stage - the pinnacle of the sport. Now, it’s a question of performing and showing we can stay there.
“The more interest people show, the more we start sailing. At the nationals, compared to the three women I usually competed with, we had 10-12 (competitors at the latest nationals). It’s moving, and I’m excited to see that. Our fleets are growing, and that’s what’s important,” says Kumanan.
Individually, Kumanan is preparing for the World Championships and the Asian Games next year. As part of the ‘Dream Gold’ project by the Dream Sports Foundation, Kumanan was awarded a scholarship to fund her preparations for these events.
While these competitions look impressive on a sailor’s resume, there’s a bigger target Kumanan is looking at - Olympic qualification. The winners at these events get an automatic berth at the quadrennial games.
“The primary goal is to go through this European season and try to qualify (for Paris 2024) at the Worlds on the first or second opportunity, rather than leave it to the Asian Games or the Asian qualification (like Tokyo Olympics).”
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