This national-level Paralympic swimmer dons many hats Premium

Explore the inspiring journey of Geetha Kannan, a national-level Paralympic swimmer and junior cooperative auditor, overcoming challenges with resilience.

Becoming a sportsperson seemed implausible for 43-year-old Geetha Kannan from Tambaram, as polio struck her at just six months old, leaving her paralysed from neck to toe. “I was surprised myself. How could a wheelchair-bound person even swim?” says Ms. Kannan, who is now a national-level Paralympic swimming medallist with gold and silver medals to her name.

At the State level, she has bagged seven gold medals in Paralympic swimming competitions, and her achievements do not stop there. She also won a bronze medal in shot put at a national-level Paralympic athletics competition, along with six silver and three bronze medals in State-level events. For Ms. Kannan, sports are all about passion. Professionally, she spent decades as an accountancy teacher.

“The swimming pool is the only place where I truly feel independent,” says Ms. Kannan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“I regained my ability to speak and use my hands after intensive treatment, but my schooling years were anything but ordinary. My mother physically carried me to school every single day until Class VIII,” adds Ms. Kannan, who had another difficult chapter still ahead of her. What seemed like an innocuous drive to watch a movie turned into a nightmare when her car met with an accident, paralysing her hands once again in 2016, the very limbs she depended on most. “Despite all this, I was never ready to give up,” she says.

Chancing upon Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu of the YWTC (Yes, We Too Can) Charitable Trust, who is a former national-level Paralympic swimming champion, Ms. Kannan found a newfound belief that she, too, could swim.

She travelled nearly two hours every day from Tambaram to the SDAT swimming pool in Periamet just to get into the water. “That is the only swimming pool in Chennai that is accessible to a person with a locomotor disability, as it has a ramp inside the pool and a lift chair that can be lowered into the water using a remote control; the same lift brings me back out,” says Ms. Kannan, who initially went there only for hydrotherapy. She credits her coach, D. Purushothaman, with giving her a renewed sense of hope that she, too, could become a sportsperson. “The swimming pool is the only place where I truly feel independent,” she says.