Sneha Ramu: Silencing her skeptics through her performances in the pool

When Sneha Ramu was 10 years old, her mother, R.Revathy took her to the Turtles Swim Club in Chennai to engage her in some activity. The hearing impaired youngster immediately took to the sport, and has made ripples in the pool ever since. Within 4 years of training she wowed everyone, clinching as many as 20 medals.

Ms Revathy says with a smile, “ She would not come home without a medal”. She went on to win five golds at the national championships held for special category, which earned her a ticket to represent India at the 22^nd Deaflympics held at Sofia, Bulgaria in 2013.

A camp in Delhi was conducted for a month in preparation for the Olympics, which saw 26 Indian athletes. “ It was the best moment of my life, it was great to interact with the other swimmers”, she says in reminiscence. And at 16 years, she was the youngest competitor at the Deaflympics, swimming against competitors as old as 32 years.

Out of the 130-odd swimmers, Sneha placed 17^th in the 200m IM Medley event. But the youngster has her feet firmly planted on the ground.

“I need to practice more and more to improve my timings”, she says.

Apart from shining for the country, she has been a star in the state meets in the general category. She has also gone onto represent her school at the CBSE National level meets.

Sneha, who comes under the Championship Development Scheme, is a student of the Turtles Club, and trains under coach Mr B. Girish. Her day starts at five in the morning and ends at nine at night, with two training sessions eating up most of her day. Managing studies and professional sport can be grueling for any athlete, but Sneha is not complaining.

“I am able to manage both, and try to fit in my studies when I can”, says the class 10 student of Sivaswami Kalalaya. The support from her school and teachers and friends in particular have been of paramount importance to the Chennai girl.

Having lost her father to cancer, Sneha’s mother relies on pension to fund her daughter’s swimming. But the support from the academy and the swimming federations, both state and national, has eased the burden a bit. While most young swimmers are quick to name Michael Phelps as their favourite, Sneha wants to emulate Indian swimmer Akileshwar. J, who represented India at the London Olympics.

And she is already looking ahead to the 2017 games to be held at Ankara,Turkey.

“I am training towards that, hopefully I can better my performance”, says Sneha who also wants to be an oncologist.