Niranjan Mukundan (born 4 September 1994) is an Indian para-swimmer. He was crowned as the Junior World Champion in the year 2015.

Early years

Niranjan was born in

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

with

spina bifida Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, men ...

; he has an incomplete development of the spinal cord and clubbed feet. With the support of his parents, he started learning swimming and progressed very quickly. Niranjan attended the Jain University in Bangalore for higher education.

Career

Early career

Niranjan claimed the silver medal twice in 50m butterfly at the Paralympic nationals in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, 2004–2005 and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, 2005–2006. At the state aquatic championships in

he won silver medal in 2007 and bronze in 2009 in

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

Later career

2012 was a fruitful year for Niranjan, at the national swimming championship in Chennai, he won three gold medals, one silver in swimming and one bronze in

. Niranjan won his first international medal, a bronze in 200m freestyle at the IDM German Swimming Championship in Berlin. In 2013 he won more international medals at the IWAS World Junior Games in

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, clinching two silver in 100m freestyle and butterfly along with two bronze medals in 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle. He soon became world number 17. At the 13th para national swimming championship in

, he won one gold, a silver and two bronze medals. At the 2014 IWAS World Junior Games in Stoke Mandeville,

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Niranjan won a whopping eight medals, three gold, two silver and three bronze. On 1 November 2015, he won the state's prestigious Kannada

Rajyotsava Prashasti The Rajyotsava Prashasti or Rajyotsava Awards, the second highest civilian honor of the Karnataka state of India are conferred annually by the Karnataka Government on the occasion of the establishment of the state on 1 November celebrated as t ...

. He also received the National Award (best sportsman with disability) for his exceptional achievement in the field of sports, at

Vigyan Bhavan Vigyan Bhawan ("science building") is a premier conference centre of the Government of India in New Delhi. Built in 1956, over the years it has been the venue of conferences of national and international stature, seminars and award ceremonies a ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

. He won 10 medals (7 gold and 3 silver) in the World Junior Games held at

Stadskanaal Stadskanaal () is a town and municipality with a population of 32,715 in the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. It was named after the canal Stadskanaal. From 1800 until 1900 this area was ideal for its peat mining, and so ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and was also crowned as the Junior World Champion. At the 2016 IWAS Junior World Games in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

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, Niranjan won eight more medals, also three gold, two silver and three bronze. He was honoured to have delivered the athletes' oath in front of his fellow competitors.

Personal

Niranjan hails from a middle-class family from Bangalore. His father used to work as independent consultant and mother works in a corporate company. Born with a medical condition called spina bifida and with clubbed feet, he underwent as many as sixteen surgeries. He was advised by the doctors to undergo swimming to strengthen his leg muscles. His mother took him to the swimming club in Jayanagar,

and it is here that coach John Christopher spotted and promised to turn him into an international level swimmer.

Awards and recognition

* 2016 –

Ekalavya Award The Ekalavya Award is given by the several state government including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana etc. The award is given to native players for outstanding performance in sports or even education by few states like Rajasthan Rajasthan ...

* 2015 – National Award for Best Sports-person of the Year by

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

* 2015 – Achiever's Award from Dr. Chenraj Roychand, founding chairman,

The JGI Group Jain University, officially JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), is a private deemed-to-be-university in Bangalore, India. Originating from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, it was conferred the deemed-to-be-university status in 2009. In August ...

References

External links

Blog
Jain University
Finding Tadpoles"Disability is no bar"
Bangalore Mirror {{DEFAULTSORT:Mukundan, Niranjan 1994 births Paralympic swimmers of India Living people Sportspeople with club feet Swimmers from Bangalore People with spina bifida Recipients of the Rajyotsava Award 2015 Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for India 20th-century Indian people 21st-century Indian people