Suyash Jadhav

Suyash Sau is an Indian Para swimmer competing in the S7 Category. He is the only Indian Para swimmer to have achieved the ‘A’ qualifying mark for the2016 Paralympics in Rio, and is being supported by the GoSports Foundation through the Para Champions Programme ahead of his Paralympics quest.

Suyash was born in 1993 in Solapur, Maharashtra. He started swimming at a very young age, following in his father's footstep who was a national level swimmer himself. He aspired to fulfill his father's destiny one day by competing and winning medals at the international stage.

However, in Class 6, Suyash suffered serious injuries to his upper limbs after getting accidentally electrocuted by unprotected wiring at a construction site. Both his arms had to be amputated and he subsequently spent six months in hospital following the incident. However, Suyash did not give up on his dreams and his love for swimming. He continued to compete in differently-abled competitions domestically and began to show promise. Not long after, he started competing and winning medals for India at the international level, fulfilling a childhood dream.

Training at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune, Suyash gained prominence when he won a silver and a bronze medal at the 2015 IWAS World Games in Sochi, Russia, conducted by the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation. In doing so, Suyash became the first Indian Para swimmer to register the ‘A’ qualifying mark for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

He followed this up with four medals at the 2015 Winter Open Polish Championship in November and continued his medal-winning form into 2016, winning three silver medals at the German swimming championship in January.

Having already registered the qualifying mark, Suyash is now vying to improve his timings further to get within medal contention for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio.