How fearless athletes and tense parents swim through salty challenges of Open Water Swimming

On an overcast morning on Wednesday, a host of coaches and parents waited with bated breath for their wards and children – swimmers – to finish their laps and return.

A few paces away from this gathering was Jyoti Makawana, sitting on the sands of Ghoghla beach wearing a tense smile. “I’ve been listening to the Hanuman Chalisa since the start of the race,” she told Sportstar as the humming of the devotional song played with loud motivational songs playing on the speakers. The reason she was invoking the Gods was because her 18-year-old daughter was out in the Arabian Sea, attempting to complete a 10km race.

Unlike swimming in a pool, which has lanes made of material engineered to aid the swimmers, the ungovernable ocean isn’t an easy customer. Unpredictable waves, extremely saline water, and marine creatures are the challenges which await the swimmers.

But the athletes at the Khelo India Beach Games – many of whom were teenagers – showed no fear. Sportstar caught up with them, their parents, and officials to find out what goes into Open Water Swimming (OWS).

Obstacles out in the open

“It was cold and very tough to swim. Onek jol kheyechi (I swallowed a lot of water),” said Anusmita Karmakar from West Bengal, who recently turned 14. This was her first time swimming in the ocean.

“It’s very salty water and it’s very heavy as well,” she said, immediately looking to her senior Statemate in Pratyay Bhattacharya – a seasoned open water swimmer – for agreement

“I’ve been swimming in open waters since 2017. This is like my 10th time in this event,” Pratyay, who has represented India in multiple Asian Championships, said.

“The congestion in the beginning, which we don’t find inside the pool, is there. At the start of the race, there’s a bit of body contact amongst the swimmers. Then slowly the fastest ones separate from the group and go ahead,” he, who finished second in the men’s 10km, said.

Sixteen-year-old Aarna MP from Tamil Nadu had a fear of crabs and jellyfish when she started swimming in open water three years back. While she thanks god for not encountering these creatures, the danger of getting severely injured also looms large.

Around the midway point of the race, a boat returned to the shore carrying 14-year-old Dimple Sonakshi M Gowda of Karnataka, who had sustained an injury and couldn’t continue. “After a kilometre, I was feeling a bit of pain in my shoulder. Despite cramping up, I chose to continue. But after the four-kilometre mark, I was not able to lift my arm,” she said.

Among the competitors was also 13-year-old Prakriti Latheesh Nair from Tamil Nadu – the youngest swimmer at the KIBG – who is settled in Oman with her parents but comes to India for training and competitions.

“Technically, there are no touchpads here, as compared to a pool. When a person finishes their race inside a pool, the touchpad helps to monitor their timings. Here, we have tags on our hands which we have to touch on boards to get our timings. Out in the water, there are no lanes, and the currents are too strong. If you know how to swim in open waters, you can swim anywhere in the world,” she said confidently.

Unlike inside the pool, where the athletes can see what’s in front of them, they have to keep their heads above the water out in the ocean. While some may have water bodies nearby for them to practise in, most of them prepare for these long-distance races in their pools.

“The swimming is the same. Before the event, we swim once or twice inside the lakes. Adaptation happens at the venue of the race itself in a couple of days,” 25-year-old Pratyay said.

“It’s enough if we come a day or two before the race and practise inside the waters for 2 km. Feeling the waves and the water helps you get used to it,” said 17-year-old Renukacharya Hodmani of Karnataka, who clinched the gold in the men’s event.

Going with the flow

Latheesh Gopinathan, Prakriti’s father, knows the risk of sending one’s child in these choppy waters. “When I’m sending my daughter out, it’s a 50-50 chance that I won’t get her back. Imagine if she’s stung by jellyfish and gets an anaphylactic shock, she’ll go straight down. If she finishes the race today, then it’ll be a huge thing for my whole family. You need a lot of heart to do this. Medals will come, but not quitting is a bigger achievement.”

But not every parent can remain as level-headed as Latheesh. Jyoti, mother of Bansuri Pravin Makwana, doesn’t think being tense will ever go away. “I couldn’t sleep for a week after her first time in this event. She’s a late child and my only one. My relatives stopped interacting with me and would scold me for sending her out in the waters.”

There are also some parents who step into the open waters along with their child and create records. Queeni Victoria Gandam – who swam the English Channel last year – was at the Beach Games with her son, who was to swim in the 5km event. Queeni was elated to be there with her son. “He actually didn’t tell me about his wish to swim in the open waters. When I came back from completing the English Channel in June 2024, I asked him whether he’d like to swim in the ocean with me. He was surprised, but he never said no.”

What does it take to organise an Open Water Swimming competition?

Krunal Bhosale-Jambhale, a technical officer at the KIBG event and a former swimmer herself, was there on the boat which helped rescue Dimple. Krunal stressed the importance of having medical training and quick assistance on standby, especially in this sort of tournament.

“We went out into the water to rescue her and get her on the boat. Seeing that she couldn’t lift her shoulder. I used a piece of cloth there on the boat to create a makeshift sling for her arm, so that the damage isn’t aggravated. The on-ground medical staff applied ointment sprays onto her shoulder and then she was taken to the local government hospital,” she recalled.

Present at the beach was Rahul Chiplunkar, competition manager. He is also part of the Swimming Federation of India and right now is focussed on structuring and standardising OWS.

“Before organising any event, the most important groups to involve are the fisheries and the weather forecast departments. It should be a neap tide: there shouldn’t be a difference of more than 0.50m between the high and the low tide. Today it’s 0.12m and tomorrow for the 5km race it will be around 0.38m,” Rahul explained the logistics.

The organising team also does a recce to check the geological conditions, whether there are any sandbars or rocks in the route. This is done a month before.

“We map the route according to the tide direction and flow using GPS, and the buoys are marked accordingly. Then there are two checks conducted to see everything is in order,” he added.