Google on Thursday remembered Indian swimmer Arati Saha, a groundbreaking long-distance swimmer and Olympian, on what would have been her 80th birthday.
On September 29, 1959, she became the first Asian woman to cross the English Channel, swimming 42 miles from Cape Gris Nez, France to Sandgate, England. Later in her life, she told interviewers that she was inspired by Indian swimmer Mihir Sen. She covered the distance of 67.5km in 16 hours and 20 minutes.
She was born in 1940 in Kolkata on September 24. Her athletic gift emerged early in her life and Saha won her first gold medal for swimming when she was five-years old. She learned to swim on the banks of the Hooghly River, and her skills soon attracted the mentorship of one of India’s top competitive swimmers, Sachin Nag. By 11 years old, she was known as a swimming prodigy.
Saha earned multiple honours in her early career, including setting an all-India record in 1949 and breaking Dolly Nazir’s all-India record in a 1951 West Bengal state meet. She was also the first-ever female recipient of Padma Shri award in 1960.
Today’s doodle was drawn by fellow Kolkata native, artist Lavanya Naidu. Naidu hopes her drawing helps inspire people everywhere to ‘dream big, no matter where you come from.’
