Swapna played football and kabaddi during her school years in Jalpaiguri. Her father, a rickshaw-puller, suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been bed-ridden since then. Her mother worked as a tea picker on an estate.
Swapna Barman fought tooth-and-twelve-nails to win India’s first-ever Asian Games Gold medal in heptathlon on Wednesday. She is the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold.
Heptathlon was not meant to be an octathlon — with tooth trouble thrown into the mix. She loves chocolates and rosogulla, but it’s a dentist’s chair that will be her first port of call after her sensational gold medal.
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She loves to sing as well, and says she’d have been a singer if not an athlete. But even humming a song in these last three days seemed like agony. “Even smiling was a torment, forget singing,” she said, clutching her cheek but still laughing. “Everything hurts and has been injured — ankle, knee, back, fingers and now tooth,” she said, after winning the gold.
Barman, who has six toes in both her feet, produced her career-best performance by logging 6026 aggregate points from the seven events spread for two days. She competed with a tape on her right cheek to lessen pain arising out of teeth infection.
Swapna started out as a high jumper, but was told that she was too short to carry on in the event. Picked for a SAI trial after two rejections in 2011 and 2012, she broadened her repertoire and focussed on sharpening disciplines she was already good at, even as the unique challenge with the added toes started to cut into her leg movements.
“It pains all the time, I’ve struggled to get shoes for my six toes all my life,” she said. It’s not just during competition, but even the training leaves her with traumatised feet. She has met a clutch of doctors and experts, been in rehab for ages, and sneaked in a gold medal at the Asiad in the middle of all these afflictions.
“It’s bad with shoes, it’s worse with spikes,” she said, adding that the gold medals also bring with them months of homesickness. “I haven’t been home for a year,” she said.
Swapna is now the only earning member of the family.
Well Done Swapna Barman!! We proud of you !!
