Rubbing shoulders with Dressel, Ledecky gives Aryan Nehra confidence
It was raining records for Aryan Nehra at the 76th Senior National Aquatic Championships. The 19-year-old started out by smashing the 400m freestyle (3:52.55) National Record (NR) by a whopping 3.10 seconds to follow it up with gold medals and NRs in 800m freestyle (8:01.81), 1,500m (15:29.76) and 400m individual medley (4:25.62).
Four NRs in as many days led the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) to adjudge him the best male swimmer of the competition that was held from July 2 to 5. But Nehra, who hails from Ahmedabad, didn’t go to Hyderabad expecting to break NRs, especially after an average outing at the National Games in his home state last year.
“For the most part, personal bests (PB) would have been good enough. Even if I got close to PBs was going to be good. The bigger goal was to have solid races, swim correctly and focus on the details. The focus was on winning races rather than what the numbers were on the clock. But I was pleasantly surprised with the timings,” said Nehra.
“This meet could have gone one of many ways and I wouldn’t have been too disappointed as my main focus right now are the World Championships and more importantly, the Asian Games. Having gone the way it did, I can’t complain as it certainly went better than I was expecting. I am obviously pretty happy.”
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It’s not a coincidence that Nehra’s performances and timings have been improving, especially over the last two years. The teenager made a conscious decision of shifting to the United States in 2021 after completing school to pursue a degree in finance at the University of Florida.
After checking in at Gainesville, Nehra joined the university’s swimming programme which has produced Olympic champions such as Ryan Lochte, Tracy Caulkins, Conor Dwyer among several others.
The University of Florida is a Division I school of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) — the highest tier for intercollegiate sports programmes, in this case swimming, in the US.
As part of Florida Gators, the swimming team that competes at the national level in the US, Nehra developed as a swimmer by regularly taking part in competitions, training with some of the world’s best and under some of the finest coaches.
“Our programme is very different to anything I have ever worked with in the past so it took me a while to get used to it, to adapt to what the programme needs from me. But after my first year, this year has been much better and I have been able to get everything the programme has to offer,” said Nehra, who is a product of India’s Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS).
Among the current lot of swimmers Nehra trains with world and Olympic champions like Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Natalie Hinds, Robert Finke and Kieran Smith, who are now on first-name basis with the Indian. For Nehra, the great names have transformed into ‘Katie on the block’ or ‘What’s going on Caeleb’.
“What I really love about them is that they are so humble. That makes the process so easy. When they’re outside the water, they are regular people. That is also pretty cool to see that swimming isn’t everything for them. But when they’re in the water it is the biggest thing for them, striving for that perfection. I love spending time with them. Out of the group, someone I really idolise is Bobby (Robert Finke),” said Nehra, whose father is a civil servant and mother an educator.
“Over the last few years, we have been developing a very solid pro team. Apart from being one of the best swimming programmes it also has a ton of very fast pro swimmers who are some of the big names I get to work with on a day-to-day basis. That is what makes Florida a really good place for me to be at. I can see day in, day out, what I need to go up against, where it is I need to be and what it takes to get there.”
After smashing NRs in Hyderabad, Nehra’s next target is the World Championships and the Asian Games. While the Worlds are being held in Fukuoka, Japan, from July 14 to 30, the Indian’s events will be on July 25 (800m) and July 29 (1,500m) after which he will proceed to Hangzhou for the Asiad that will be held from September 23 to October 8. In China, Nehra will compete in 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, 1,500m freestyle and 4x200m relay.
“For the Worlds, the goal is just to swim fast and get to race against some of the best. The Asian Games being a smaller environment, I can try and be a little more competitive, hopefully making finals and trying to get to the podium if that’s a possibility,” said Nehra.
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