21-year-old Maana Patel will compete in the women’s 100-meter backstroke at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will take place in Japan’s capital from July 23 to August 8.
Maana Patel will compete in the women’s 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Olympics (Kiren Rijiju Twitter Photo)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Maana Patel qualified for the Olympic Games through the universality quota
- The universality quota enables one male and one female athlete from one country to participate in the Olympic Games
- Maana Patel will join Sajan Prakash and Srihari Natarajan in India’s Tokyo swimming squad
The promising athlete Maana Patel made history on Friday when she became the first Indian swimmer to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo via the “universality quota”.
The universality quota allows one male and one female competitor from one country to participate in the Olympic Games, provided no other swimmer of the same sex qualifies for the Games or receives a FINA invitation based on their Olympic selection time (B-time).
Maana Patel, 21, will take part Sayan Prakash and Srihari Natarajan in India’s swimming roster for this month’s Summer Olympics, which will take place in Japan’s capital from July 23 to August 8.
Maana will compete in the women’s 100m back run, while Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj will compete in the 200m butterfly and
“It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve heard about the Olympics from other swimmers and I’ve seen them on TV and seen a lot of pictures,” the Gujarati swimmer told Olympics.com.
“But to be there this time and compete with the best in the world just gives me goose bumps,” she added.
Back swimmer Maana Patel is the first female and third Indian swimmer to qualify # Tokyo2020. I congratulate Maana who qualified through Universality Quota. Well done!! pic.twitter.com/LBHup0F7RK
– Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 2, 2021
The 21-year-old suffered an ankle injury in 2019 and only made a comeback at the beginning of the year.
“It’s been a tough year coming back from injury,” Maana admitted.
“Although the pandemic and lockdown were a hidden blessing as they helped me recover well, but later the frustration crept in. I’m not used to staying out of the water for so long, ”she said.
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