People often take it for granted, being born with all the abilities and the intensity of what heartfelt hard work and determination can unravel. But only the ones experiencing it can feel how the love and passion for a particular thing and desire to imprint your name irrespective of all odds can work wonders and pave the way in your favour. This time, we unfold the story of Mr. Suyash Jadhav who has been there and done that; all by himself and all for himself with the help and support of his loved ones.
Mr. Suyash Jadhav of Solapur, Maharashtra is an Indian Para Swimmer with a specialisation in butterfly, freestyle, backstroke and individual medley strokes. But he was not born as a para swimmer, rather a normal boy with everything intact in its place perfectly.
Everything was progressing flawlessly and effortlessly until 2004. When Mr. Jadhav was in 6th standard, he had gone to attend his brother’s wedding. He was playing with an iron rod when an electric line from the electric network system fell and came in contact with the iron rod Mr. Jadhav was playing with. No one can forecast how even actions taking place within fraction of seconds can change your entire pathway. All those things which were taking place “effortlessly”, no longer would be the same. At the age of 11, Mr. Suyash Jadhav lost his upper limbs after getting electrocuted by unprotected wiring. No one would have ever imagined; such a havoc would unfold at that specific time.
However, one has truly said that life goes on with all its ups and downs in it. His parents were always there for him and his father always motivated him.
They never made him feel like something disastrous happened and consistently treated him just like a normal kid as; “learning starts at home, healing starts at home, motivation starts at home and thus happiness starts at home”. Investing on what he had and not giving a second thought to what he did not, he started visioning his disability as the ability to do something which was not possible for everyone, even for those with perfect abilities.
Mr. Jadhav’s father was a national level swimmer himself. But there was an instance in his father’s life where he wasn’t able to take part in one of the competitions as it got cancelled. His father has always been his one and true idol and inspiration. He decided to follow his father’s trail and shadow his footsteps and wished to fulfil the dreams his father had seen once. In 2007, he started his journey with the guidance of his father in his home town accompanied with basic learnings of swimming techniques. Then after sometime they shifted to Pune where he started mastering advanced swimming training and techniques.
Gradually, he made his disability his biggest strength and the most precious asset. Just when he was getting back on track, some of his competitors tried to manipulate and demotivate him because of the reason of his disability. They wanted him to leave swimming forever and were stubborn on misleading him during 2013 and 2015. There was a time when he did question all of this, but nothing overshadowed the hard work he had already put in and was further contributing. Mr. Jadhav further says that one of the barriers was also his lack of awareness about all the international championships and games in the field of para swimming. When he came to know that he missed his chance in some of the international championships due to his lack of information, he started educating himself. Mr. Jadhav started further collecting information on all the championships. He came in contact with the right authorities who further helped him in expanding his horizon of facts and data which was a pre-requisite for him.
Mr. Suyash Jadhav has represented our nation in 2016 Summer Paralympics hosted in Rio and is the only Indian Para Swimmer to have achieved “A” qualifying mark for the same. He has been honored with “Shiv Chhatrapati Award” by the Maharashtra government. In 2018, he participated in Asian Para Games and won the historic gold medal in 50m butterfly that is first time for India in Asian Para Games, one bronze in 50m freestyle and one bronze in 200m individual medley style. In the year 2017 and 2019 he represented India in World Championship and secured the 4th position. Till date he has bagged internationally 21 medals (5 gold, 9 silver & 7 bronze), nationally 46 medals (37 gold, 6 silver & 3 bronze) and on a state level 51 medals (50 gold & 1 bronze) summing it all to a total of 180 medals!
At present, he is a Class 1 District Sports Officer and a Swimming Coach at Balewadi Stadium, Pune. It is a great news of pride and respect for our nation and all its citizens that Mr. Jadhav has further been selected for 2021 Summer Paralympics, Tokyo. In future he plans to help disabled swimmers so that they don’t face those difficulties and hardships in their training which Mr. Jadhav faced himself. He further highlights the significance of health and fitness specially in this time of Covid-19.
It was Mr. Jadhav’s disability, which helped him climb to the position where he stands today. It wasn’t his normalcy that helped him gather his determination but his prized asset which is tagged as a disability that worked as a support to help him fulfil his father’s dreams.
No one is going to stand up and hand you a plate of progress in your life. You must make progress by your own sheer will, discipline and efforts every day. Don’t assume the results before hand, but rather try your best. Sometimes carrying on, and just carrying on despite of all the hindrances is a super human achievement. Perhaps tomorrow but not today, it will be your day and today you got to go out to go in there to bowl deprived mindsets over with your utter force of will. So, stand straight there. There’s always a long way to go!
No one is going to stand up and hand you a plate of progress in your life. You must make progress by your own sheer will, discipline and efforts every day. Don’t assume the results before hand, but rather try your best. Sometimes carrying on, and just carrying on despite of all the hindrances is a super human achievement. Perhaps tomorrow but not today, it will be your day and today you got to go out to go in there to bowl deprived mindsets over with your utter force of will. So, stand straight there. There’s always a long way to go!
A special message for all by Mr. Jadhav himself, “DON'T THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE AND WORK ON IT TO CONVERT IT INTO SUCCESS.”
-Team Satyavachan