MARGAO
Xavier D'Souza idolizes Michael Phelps. Like his hero, the young swimmer from Mapusa wants to perform at the biggest sporting stage in the world -- the Olympics. The 16-year-old has set his target -- qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The Goan prodigy had a memorable campaign at the 44th Glenmark Junior National Aquatic championship held at Balewadi, Pune in Maharashtra recently. Although he missed a gold, Xavier brought home four silver medals -- 50m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly (all Group I Boys). He also won a bronze in 200m backstroke event.
Xavier finished behind Karnataka's N Sri Hari who won the 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke with a timing of 00.26.90 and 00.57.33 respectively. Xavier claimed the silver with timings of 00.27.45 and 01.00.65 in both the events respectively.
The Mapusa-born swimmer, who participated in his sixth Nationals, could not make it to the podium last year at the Sub junior and Junior Aquatic championship. But the Goan swimmer managed to stand out from the rest after his impressive show. He is the only individual swimmer from Goa to have the won medals at the meet. The significant improvement came after he shifted base to Bengaluru. He was trained by reputed coach Nihar Ameen at Dolphin Aquatics.
"Michael Phelps is my idol and I have always followed him on television. My aim is to qualify for the 2020 Olympics," D'Souza told The Goan.
Commenting his performance, Xavier said: "I am absolutely delighted to have won four silver and one bronze medal. The five medals at the championship has made me more determined to get better and win more medals. I'm now even more hungry to go out and win more events and better my own self with every passing day," he added.
A son of a small restaurant owner in Mapusa, Xavier has been taken under the wings by Glenmark Aquatic Foundation, Mumbai which provides elite training facilities to swimmers. "The last four times I was based in Mapusa but no I have been training with Bushan Kumar and Peter Carswell in Mumbai,"
Xavier said.
The results are encouraging for Xavier, who stays with his parents John D'Souza (father) and Emillia D'Souza (mother), who stays in Mumbai. Xavier's father, John said: "I am proud of him. Any parent would feel that way if his kid is doing well. More than winning medals, I want my child to be grounded. This is the one thing I have always taught him."
Talking about his family, Xavier said: "My father runs a small restaurant in Mapusa. So, financially the journey has been tough for us. There are good coaches in Goa but the infrastructure is not really good. We had to move out as I couldn't improve much here."
John feels training in Mumbai will improve Xavier but feels getting results "won't be that easy". "Swimming is an expensive sport. As of now we are getting help from Xavier's grandmother but as he graduates to the senior level, it will be difficult... beyond our reach," John said.
"We spend around 20 lakhs on his swimming assignments yearly and now Glenmark Aquatic Foundation help us in sharpening his skills and give him training. I hope we can get some help from some sponsors as well,"
John added.
