Bangalore: At 17 years of age Shikha Tandon has had the exposure and experience of
two Asian Games (Bangkok 1998 and Busan 2002). This by itself is no mean
achievement, but there is more to it in this modestly quiet second year pre-
university student of Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore.
After Bula Chaudhary in 1986, Shikha became the first Indian woman swimmer to
qualify for a final in the 100 metres final of the Busan Asian Games with her best
ever timing of 58.49, which by itself is a national record. Shikha also set a new
national record of 9:20.56 eclipsing the previous mark by nearly 12 seconds in
the 800 metres free style at the Busan pool. The previous mark had been set much
before Shikha was born!
Two Asian Games exposures and what next? Pat came the reply, "I want to qualify for
the Athens Olympic Games. My aim is not to just to qualify for the Olympics, I also
want to enter the final and
God willing, the medal bracket too. I'll be focussing on
the 50 metres, 100 metres and 400 metres free style events and would also be looking
at 200 metres individual medley."
Coached at the K C Reddy Swim Centre by Nihar Ameen, Shikha had the benefit of
training and competing in the US in 1999-2000 under the government of India
scholarship 'Assistance to Promising Sportspersons'.
"I trained at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club, Charlotte in North Carolina under coach
Patrick Hogan. Two Olympic swimmers Tilen Siroky (represented US) and Magdalina of
Poland trained at that club around the same time," Shikha told Indiainfo.com in an
exclusive chat.
"Though 100 metres free style is my favourite event, I still haven't figured out if
I'm a sprinter or a distance person. But, I usually swim all the distances 50
metres to 800 metres in the free style category. Definitely, I would like to have
another, preferably a longer, stint of training in the US. It would help if I could
get another scholarship," she said.
"The facilities in India are pretty good, but we lack the numbers to push you to do
better. Whereas abroad, we are training and working continuously. There is always
somebody continuously pushing you and that definitely helps to sharpen your skills.
Some of the other girls of your age over there are faster than you and you
constantly try to keep up and catch up with them. That, in a nutshell, I would put
is the difference between training in India and abroad," Shikha explained.
"There is a lot of emphasis on diet, physical and mental aspects while training in
the US. In India, however, we don't focus much on mental aspects of swimming.
However, at KCR where I train my coach does work on the mental attitude too. He
keeps emphasising that we have to believe in ourselves, develop confidence and be
determined to achieve our goals," Shikha said stating that her diet now comprised a
lot of carbohydrate and protein intake in the form of rice, pasta, noodles, chicken,
fish and idlis.
"The 18 month qualifying period for the Athens Olympic Games will begin in January.
I'll focus on qualifying for the Olympics as well as training for the national and
international events. While my immediate goal is the upcoming National Games at
Hyderabad, I'm also looking forward to taking part in the 10th World Swimming
Championships at Barcelona, Spain in July 2003 and the Afro-Asian Games in New Delhi
in October," she said.
Starting to train at the age of eight, Shikha made big splashes the very next year
by winning a national medal. Ever since, Shikha's career has seen an upward graph
and she was the youngest athlete of the Indian contingent at the 13th Asian Games in
Busan. "In fact, it was my younger brother who was recommended to take up swimming
to overcome his asthma. I just went along with him and soon got interested in
competitive swimming," Shikha signed off.
