Supriya Mondal, born on 12 January 1997 hails from a little fishing village in Shahpur,

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

. He is an Indian

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

and trains at the Dolphin Academy,

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

under coach

Nihar Ameen Nihar Ameen is the pre-eminent Indian swimming coach, winner of Dronacharya Award 2015, and is associated with the Dolphin Academy in Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, Bangalore. Among his trainees are the first Indian athletes to qu ...

who has trained Olympians like

Virdhawal Khade Virdhawal Vikram Khade (born 29 August 1991) ( mr, विरधवल खाडे) is an Indian swimmer. He competed in the men's 50, 100, and 200 meters Freestyle swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, setting an Indian nat ...

and

Sandeep Sejwal Sandeep Sejwal (born 23 January 1989) is an Indian swimmer who has participated in Olympics 2008. He contested in the men's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events at the 2010 Asian Juniors in Beijing, but did not reach the finals in both events. ...

. Srikanth is supported by the GoSports Foundation,

and has been part of their scholarship programme since 2012.

Career

Early career

Mondal won gold medal in the 100m and 200m butterfly events, and a silver medal in the 50m butterfly event at the Junior National Championships in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, 2009. In the 39th Junior National Aquatic Championship,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

2012, Mondal took one gold and one silver in the 100m and 200m butterfly events respectively.

2013

Mondal represented

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

at the

2013 Asian Youth Games ) , Nations participating = 45 , Athletes participating = 2404 , Officially opened by = Liu Yandong , Events = 122 in 16 sports , Opening ceremony = August 16 , Closing ceremony = August 24 , Stadium ...

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and finished 6th in the 200m butterfly event. In the 40th junior nationals in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

he won two gold and a silver, creating the national record in the 200m butterfly event along the way. At the senior nationals in

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

, Mondal collected a silver in 200m butterfly and a bronze in the 100m of the same discipline.

2014

Mondal was awarded the best swimmer title in the 41st junior nationals in Bhopal. He finished the tournament with 5 gold and another national record. He won 2 gold and 1 silver medal at the 1st Dubai International Aquatic Championships. The youngster clocked 2:03.93s in the 200m butterfly, achieving the ‘A’ qualification required to compete in the same event in the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports ...

Personal

Born in a very modest family, Mondal's father is a fisherman and his mother a home maker. Mondal started swimming in a small pond in Shahpur,

. His talent did not go unnoticed. Sanjib Chakraborty, his mentor and husband of famous

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

swimmer,

Bula Choudhury Bula Choudhury (born 2 January 1970, Hugli, India) is an Indian former swimmer. She is an Arjuna awardee, Padma shri awardee, former India national women's swimming champion and elected as MLA from 2006 to 2011 representing Nandanpur in West ...

, taught him the rules of professional swimming and helped him hone his skills. Supriya's talent was soon discovered by the GoSports Foundation in 2012, who helped relocate him to Bangalore to train under Nihar Ameen.sportskeeda.com
/ref> The Foundation has since been supporting him with training, equipment as well as gaining tournament exposure.

References

External links

Finding Tadpoles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mondal, Supriya Indian male swimmers Living people 1997 births Swimmers at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Swimmers from West Bengal