Biography
Sajan Prakash will always be remembered as the first Indian swimmer to win a direct qualification to the Olympics.
At the 2021 Sette Colli trophy in Rome, Sajan Prakash clocked 1:56.38 seconds - a new national record - in the men's 200m butterfly event.
The timing was under the Olympic Qualification Time (OQT) of 1:56.48 seconds for the event and helped him secure a berth at the Tokyo Olympics.
At Tokyo 2020, Sajan Prakash, who also swam at Rio 2016, also became the first Indian swimmer to participate in two Olympic Games. His Rio spot, however, was granted under the universality quota and didn’t come through direct qualification.
Sajan Prakash’s Tokyo qualification in Italy, hence, was a first for Indian swimming and the culmination of years of hard work.
Born on September 14, 1993, in Idukki, Kerala, Sajan Prakash was introduced to sports early by his mother V Shantymol, who was a former track-and-field athlete.
The organisation where Shantymol worked at had a swimming pool and Sajan Prakash first dived in when he was five-years-old. Swimming would soon become his life’s dedication.
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