Bhopal: Differently abled Ananya Ganglani cuts through water with one hand, competes with ordinary athletes, wins two medals

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Despite being differently abled, the spirit of Ananya Ganglani knows no bounds as she refuses to give in to raging water currents when it comes to swimming. Despite being physically impaired, she not only competed against ordinary athletes but also clinched a slew of medals in swimming competitions.

Para athletes competing with ordinary athletes have always been a rare sight in sports, especially when the sport is swimming, which requires immense strength from every muscle in the body. But Ganglani took this challenge and won medals against ordinary athletes as if it were a cakewalk for her.

Bhopal Swimming Association organised the third district non-medallist tournament on Sunday in Danish Kunj. Here, a girl not only won medals but also inspired everyone who was present at the venue to see the competitions.

The mother of Ananya, Mehak Ganglani, told Free Press, "Ananya has been physically impaired since birth. She only has one hand, but her impairment never got in the way of her leading a normal life. We don’t want to treat her differently. She is good at studies, physically, she is stronger than any ordinary person."

About 85 ordinary swimmers participated in this competition, defeating people in their events. Ganglani competed with able-bodied athletes and won one gold and one bronze.

Generally, ordinary athletes compete among themselves and para-athletes compete according to their respective categories, but breaking this notion, Ganglani shone in a district-level swimming competition.

This event was organised to bring out more talent like Ganglani. Most swimmers who haven’t won any major swimming events until now took part in this event. The idea of this competition was to make swimming inclusive. Hence, Ganglani got the chance to compete with ordinary athletes, which is a rare sight in sports.

Secretary of Bhopal Swimming Association Ramkumar Khilrani stated that the swimming competition was organised in four age groups, and registered swimmers from Bhopal Swimming Association participated in it.