Nethra Kumanan The first Indian Female sailor qualified for Olympics

“Most people don’t know sailing exists in India,” Nethra Kumanan had said after her historic World Cup medal. “Our sports are cricket, football or hockey and it’s more the navy or the army that sail.”

She did so by securing second place in the Asian qualifiers. She has qualified for Tokyo 2020 even before the final race has taken place.

Sharoff said Nethra is the only Indian so far to have booked a direct quote place by top qualifier while earlier 9 Olympians.

Her Sailing Career

The 23 year old was born in Chennai. She also represented India in the 2014 and 2018 Asian games. One of her best finishes was a fourth in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia.

But for her the fourth place in Jakarta was a disappointment because her aim was to mark a spot at the Olympics. Nethra crumbled under what she said was “self-inflicted” pressure.

Anyhow, it was still a big milestone, considering where she hails from. She is an engineering student at SRM College and attributes her calm temperament for her medal-winning performances. She specializes in Laser Radial. It is a type of sailing where one person operates the sailing boat. It is a small, dinghy-style boat that is sailed single-handedly.

Nethra Kumanan achieved her spot at the Tokyo Olympics in the Laser Radial list after she led the 10-race series at the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman precisely in April 2021. In the medal round, she reached sixth, and was placed second overall. Nethra became the first woman in India to win a medal in the Sailing World Cup. Mussanah, occasionally, is also where Nethra’s international sailing career began in an Under-21 event in 2013. She clinched a bronze in Miami 2020. But her celebrations were muted as the modest Nethra had defeated friend and roommate Matilda Talluri of Italy, who had finished fifth.

Nethra has been training in Spain at Gran Canaria for the last year and a half with Hungarian coach Tamas Eszes, a two-time Olympian.

Nethra qualified for the Olympics with a big points lead in points; however the event is going to finish officially 8/5/21. After the last race called the Medal Race, her Hungarian Coach Tamas Eszes said.

Nethra is the 10^th Indian to qualify for sailing in the Olympics. All the earlier 9 athletes have been male. Many had criticized her decision. But her ticket to Tokyo has proved it wrong. Apart from Nethra, there are more in the sailing events at Tokyo 2020 for India with KC Ganapathy, Varun Thakur, Vishnu Saravanan having also qualified for Tokyo.

Early Life

She was born on August 21, 1997. Nethra brought her fins to sailing during a summer camp arranged by Tamil Nadu Sailing Association in 2009. She was 12 years old at the time.

It was a period when she was exploring. She has also dabbled in basketball, tennis and cycling before deciding on sailing where she wanted to build a career.  But she learnt most of it from Bharatanatyam (an Indian classical dance), which she had to give up for sailing.

Bharatanatyam had moulded her, infusing morals like hard work, discipline and dedication, which helps her today even as sailing became an essential part of her life.

“I love it, it’s like no other sport, and I played everything as a kid,” says Nethra. “Sailing has been different and more mental than any other sport that I’ve tried.”

Being close to her family, she also encouraged her younger brother, Naveen, to take up sailing. He also participated at the national level but eventually decided to pursue his education in Michigan.

“If someone younger were to come up to me, I’d tell them that this sport takes a lot of time, a lot of hours in the water but it’s all worth it,” Nethra has been quoted as saying.

“And you get to travel the world, meet people from different countries and experience them trying to do their best and you try to do better than them,” she points out.

However, VC Kumanan, Nethra’s father, who operates an IT company, has been by her side crunching data and providing analytical support.

Nethra believes that all the long hours she invested in sailing is well worth it. She was always passionate about the sport. Her hard work and dedication transforms her into a role model for each one.