National Games 2025: 14-year-old Olympian Dhinidhi Desinghu wins best female athlete title with nine golds

Dhinidhi Desinghu continued her remarkable rise in Indian swimming, clinching the Best Female Athlete title at the 38th National Games in Uttarakhand. The 14-year-old Olympian, who competed at Paris 2024, wrapped up her campaign with an incredible 11 medals, including nine golds, one silver, and one bronze.

Her final gold came in the women’s 100m freestyle, where she clocked 57.38 seconds, breaking her own National Games record of 57.87 seconds from the previous edition in Goa 2023. She then teamed up with Naisha Shetty, Vidith Shankar, and fellow Olympian Srihari Nataraj to win the mixed 4x100m medley relay in 4:03.91 minutes, securing her ninth and final gold medal of the event.

Earlier in the competition, Desinghu set a new national record in the women’s 400m freestyle, clocking 4:24.60 minutes, surpassing Hashika Ramachandra’s previous record (4:24.70) set at the Senior Nationals 2023. She also broke the meet record of 4:27.93, previously held by Bhavya Sachdeva.

Her other gold medal performances included the 200m freestyle (2:03.24), 100m butterfly (1:03.62), 50m freestyle (26.96), and three relay victories in the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, and mixed 4x100m freestyle events. She added a silver in the 50m butterfly and a bronze in the 4x100m medley relay to her tally.

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Srihari Nataraj Wins Best Male Athlete with Nine Golds

India’s top backstroke swimmer Srihari Nataraj, who also competed at the Paris Olympics, won the Best Male Athlete title after securing nine golds and one silver. Despite matching Desinghu’s gold tally, his total medal count of 10 fell just short of her 11-medal haul.

Nataraj had the chance to win a tenth gold but fell short in the 50m freestyle final, finishing with silver behind Maharashtra’s Mihir Ambre.

His gold medals came in the 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay.

This is the second consecutive National Games where Nataraj won the Best Male Athlete award. In Goa 2023, he won eight golds, one silver, and one bronze.