Maana Patel
Maana Patel started swimming when she was seven.
Manna Patel, first Indian female swimmer who qualified for Tokyo Olympics will compete in the women’s 100m backstroke event. The 21-year-old swimmer suffered an ankle injury in 2019 and only made a comeback earlier this year.
When she was 13, she clocked 2:23.41s in the 200m backstroke at 40th Junior National Aquatics Championship in Hyderabad breaking the national record of 2:26.41s held by Shikha Tandon at the Asian Age Group Championship in Tokyo in August 2009. Maana has won gold medals in 50 backstroke and 200 metre backstroke also at the National Games. Maana has also won gold medal in 100 metre backstroke at the 60th National School Games (2015) breaking the national record in backstroke. Maana Patel, Rashi Patel, Gitanjali Pandey and Dilpreet Kaur together had won the silver in 4X100 metre free-style relay at the 60th National School Games.
She was selected for the Olympic Gold Quest in 2015. She had won the silvers in 50 metre, 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke; bronze in 50 metre free style; gold in 4×100 metre freestyle relay; 4×100 metre medley relay at the 12th South Asian Games (2016).
Maana won 3 gold medals at 72nd Senior National Aquatic Championships-2018.
Maana won six medals (1 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze) at the 10th Asian Age-group Championships-2019 which was held in Bangalore.
As of August 2016, she has won 11 international, 61 national and 75 state level medals.
Personal life
She studied commerce at the Udgam School for Children, Ahmedabad. She was coached by Kamlesh Nanavati at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth Swimming Centre. She currently trains at the Glenmark Aquatic Foundation in Mumbai under coach Peter Carswell.
