Vishnu Saravanan (born 24 February 1999) is an Indian

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games. He is the first Indian sailor to qualify for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. He finished 26th out of 152 sailors from 52 countries in the ILCA7 world championships at

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to qualify for the

2024 Summer Olympic Games The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Paris.

Early life

Saravanan is from

Vellore Vellore ( ), also spelled Velur, is a sprawling city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River and surrounded by the Javadi Hills in the northeastern ...

, Tamil Nadu but is based in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. He is a subedar in the Indian Army. He trains at the Army Yachting Node in Mumbai. His father, Ramachandran Saravanan, was a national sailor and his sister, Ramya Saravanan, also represented India in the sailing events abroad.

Career

In 2019, Saravanan won a bronze medal at the Under-21 World Championships in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, which was his first notable achievement. He won the bronze medal at the Men's dinghy ILCA7 event in the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

. He became the second Indian sailor to qualify for more than one Olympics after Farokh Tarapore, who took part in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics. The sailing quota place he earned, is for the country, and the National Olympic Committee is likely to nominate him. He spent a month training for the Olympics at Marseille.https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/others/olympics-sailor-vishnu-saravanan-chases-high-winds-in-paris-101718129531881.html He is training under Croatian coach Milan Vujasinovic. He was lucky to have had training partners in Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, a silver medallist at 2012 London and Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia, a silver medallist at Rio and Tokyo at Marseille. They will also be some of his tough rivals at Paris. "The fighter mentality makes me want to beat the top guys before they quit,” Saravanan was quoted in the

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

on 11 June 2024.

References

External links

* * * * 1999 births Living people Indian male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for India Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Laser Sailors at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Laser Sportspeople from Tamil Nadu Asian Games bronze medalists in sailing Sailors at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games {{India-yachtracing-bio-stub