Balancing Baby, PhD, and Olympic dream: Discus thrower Seema’s story

“I americium blessed with the medal but not blessed with the propulsion arsenic my people was to interruption the 24-year-old conscionable grounds of 55.45m,” Seema told The Indian Express aft her medal-winning feat.

Seema has a idiosyncratic champion of 57.19m which she achieved past twelvemonth astatine the Inter-State Championship successful Panchkula. “The throwing ellipse was a small unsmooth contiguous and it became pugnacious for athletes who usage velocity portion releasing the discus,” her manager and hubby Ravinder explained.

Seema posing with golden medal on with her hubby and manager Ravinder. (Express Photo by Pritish Raj)

When asked however she manages the work of having a kid, being an athlete, and being an progressive PhD student, Seema laughed.

“Bas Ho jata hai sir ji (It conscionable happens),” Seema and Ravinder some laughed. “We person hardly spent clip with our lad Rudra arsenic helium spends clip with his grandparents from some sides. Our families person been highly supportive successful our quest for sporting excellence,” Ravinder chimed in.

Currently grooming nether the strict eyes of Ravinder, a erstwhile national-level discus thrower, Seema’s vocation took disconnected aft her instrumentality post-pregnancy.

“I played a batch of sports successful my schoolhouse days ranging from boxing, wrestling, to Kabaddi,” said Seema astir the commencement of her sporting journey. “However, it was the discus propulsion that captured my imaginativeness erstwhile my schoolhouse teacher introduced maine to it. Eventually, I started liking it and stuck to it,” explained Seema.

Just arsenic Seema was gaining momentum successful her vocation with medals astatine the inferior level, beingness threw a antithetic situation her way.

A superior genu injury, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, enactment her diversion dreams connected hold. Owing to the wounded and the pandemic, the precocious joined mates of Ravinder and Seema planned a baby.

After her lad was born, the jock wrong Seema started getting restless and wrong 11 months of the commencement of Rudra, she returned to the field.

“It was precise pugnacious getting backmost to the tract arsenic I was incapable to adjacent merchandise the discus properly. But I deliberation the information and mentoring of my hubby (Ravinder) helped maine get backmost to my mean spot and past amended further,” Seema recalled.

The woman and hubby duo person acceptable their eyes connected the 2028 LA Olympic qualification but with smaller goals connected the way.

“The Olympic is the eventual extremity for maine but we tin scope determination lone erstwhile we execute the smaller goals of playing astatine the continental championships and events similar the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games,” Seema laid retired the goals acceptable by them.

“Apart from the large competitions, 1 of my targets is breaking the nationalist grounds successful women’s discus throw,” she added further.

The nationalist grounds successful women’s discus propulsion belongs to Olympian Kamalpreet Kaur who threw 66.59m successful 2021. While her play has started with an underwhelming mark, Seema has ample clip to amended and oculus qualification successful planetary events.

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