Gutsy girls win gold at Special Olympics
KOLKATA: For parents of 18-year-old Salmoli Chakraborty, it was a proud moment on Friday when they spotted photographers waiting for her at Dum Dum airport. Their daughter was returning with a gold and a bronze in swimming at the Special Olympics World Games 2019 in Abu Dhabi this week. Diagnosed with learning disabilities in 2008, when she was in Class II, Salmoli has battled odds to achieve whatever she has today.
But she had always been in love with swimming.
Posing for a few photographs at the airport on Friday, Salmoli said, “It was a long struggle for years and I still cannot believe it.”
India bagged 368 medals in the Abu Dhabi games — 85 golds, 154 silvers and 129 bronzes. Sulata Sikdar, a cyclist from Hooghly, won a gold in 10km category.
Speaking about their daughter, Salmoli’s father Parimal, a PWD official, said, “She was in Class II in a Kakinara primary school when she was found to be a slow learner. Later, a doctor diagnosed her with learning disabilities. We were initially perplexed, but then decided to shift to Kolkata to get her admitted in a school for children with special needs — Manovikash Kendra. When we started living in Bhowanipore, we got her enrolled in classes at Puddapukur swimming pool. We found that she enjoyed swimming. We shifted to Santoshpur in 2015 and got her enrolled in a swimming club in the Rabindra Sarobar area. There has been no looking back since.”
Posing for a few photographs at the airport on Friday, Salmoli said, “It was a long struggle for years and I still cannot believe it.”
India bagged 368 medals in the Abu Dhabi games — 85 golds, 154 silvers and 129 bronzes. Sulata Sikdar, a cyclist from Hooghly, won a gold in 10km category.
Speaking about their daughter, Salmoli’s father Parimal, a PWD official, said, “She was in Class II in a Kakinara primary school when she was found to be a slow learner. Later, a doctor diagnosed her with learning disabilities. We were initially perplexed, but then decided to shift to Kolkata to get her admitted in a school for children with special needs — Manovikash Kendra. When we started living in Bhowanipore, we got her enrolled in classes at Puddapukur swimming pool. We found that she enjoyed swimming. We shifted to Santoshpur in 2015 and got her enrolled in a swimming club in the Rabindra Sarobar area. There has been no looking back since.”
“On Monday, we were overwhelmed when we came to know that she had won the gold in 25m breast stroke. Salmoli had a tough time to win the bronze in the backstroke on Wednesday as the pool length was only 25m and she had practised in a 50m pool,” said her coach and mentor Ashim Pal, who had been honing her skills since 2015. He had trained her through play therapy at Rabindra Sarobar.
Salmoli topped the national games in Maharashtra and, after that, she had been training rigorously for the Special Olympics, Pal explained.
Her mother Saswati said Salmoli had suffered anoxia soon after birth and had jaundice for three months. She had to undergo blood transfusion for two months. “So I knew she had some major problems. When she was found to have learning disabilities, we never thought she would achieve something so big,” she said.
For the last two years, Salmoli had been training in Goa, Rajasthan and Gurgaon. Asked about her next target, the teen said she was still unsure about it. For the time being, however, she said she was tired and just wanted to rest at their Santoshpur home.
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