Champ ready to make waves

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While girls her age flaunt their jewellery and dresses and gear up to attend weddings and family functions, 14-year-old A.V. Jayaveena toils hard at a swimming pool.

The little girl, sporting short hair and swimming costume, is not worried about missing such family occasions. “I want to swim. I want to win medals for my country. Olympics is my dream,” she says with determination.

However, the city’s breaststroke champion is not rushing towards glory. She is doing one stroke at a time, but with disciplined effort. Putting in hours of hard work at the pool every day, the class 9 student of Chettinad Vidyashram is also studying hard to become a ‘sports doctor’.

For one who picked up the nuances of swimming at a ‘learn to swim’ camp, the little girl, daughter of Kollywood star ‘Thalaivasal’ Vijay, has been passionately moving towards stardom. Says Jayaveena, “I have just started winning gold in the national age category events. I want to slowly enter the international field and bag medals in my age competitions,” she said.

Trained by Turtles Swim School head coach B. Girish, Jayaveena made public her talent by winning six medals - two of them silver - at the Ranchi National Games in 2011. “It is my best performance till date,” she declared.

The talented, down-to-earth swimmer is realistic about her immediate goals. “I will be moving to group 1 (under-16) in my next junior national event and will have to compete with older swimmers. So, I will first strengthen my craft and then look at bigger achievements,” she added.

With a national-level swimmer Jaywant at home, Jayaveena need not look elsewhere for motivation. “We have to make adjustments and do something for our children. So, we have moved closer to their training centre at Anna swimming pool by taking a flat on rent at Triplicane in spite of owning a house at Kodambakkam,” said Ms Rajeshwari Vijay, Jayaveena’s mother.

And her grandfather S. Kandaswamy is not far behind. He travels with her to most of the competitions and boosts her confidence. “I was doubtful whether I could do two events on the same day at the junior national in Chennai.

But my grandpa believed in me and reassured me about my potential and it helped me win gold in both events. The two wins also helped me bag the under-14 girls’ championship trophy,” she added.