Swapna Barman has proved it again. With a back problem so severe that even climbing stairs is agony, the heptathlete has clinched a silver medal with 5840 points at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok on Saturday.
Ekaterina Voronina of Uzbekistan took the gold with a total of 6098 points while Japan’s Yuki Yamasaki finished third with 5696.
Swapna’s personal best is 6026 points.
Has this almost Herculean achievement, given her condition, satisfied her?
“I am happy with the silver, yes, but not completely satisfied. I could have done better,” Swapna told The Telegraph from Bangkok on Sunday morning, shortly after having finished her breakfast.
“But as you know, I have been fighting a spine injury for a while and hence I did not push myself such that would risk an aggravation of the injury, heptathlon being the gruelling sport that it is.”
“I have a bigger target ahead, to defend my Asian Games gold.”
The Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8.
“But yes,” she continued, “I am proud of the fact that I made it a hat-trick of medals at this meet (gold in 2017 and silver in 2019).
“And that is a feather in my cap. I am the only woman from Bengal (though she represents MP now) who has fetched a trio of medals at this meet.
Speaking about her injury, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Calcutta trainee said: “I can’t do two practice sessions a day now. I can’t climb stairs. I’m not able to jump hurdles or do a squat. And yet I managed,” she said.
But if her pain is that bad, how does she manage to win a continental meet of this scale?
“I was in hospital a while back where I took pain killing injections on the spine which numbed the pain. And of course, I’m perpetually on painkillers too,” she explained.
Pain and Swapna are synonymous. She had won the Asian Games gold in Jakarta fighting an excruciating toothache and she had clinched a gold at the 2022 Federation Cup, tested by a severe bout of food poisoning.
Born with six toes and never able to find a comfortable shoe growing up, she’s been fighting adversities all her life.
When quizzed whether going through this agony for a medal is worth it, the 26-year-old replied: “It is not just a medal for me. It is a badge for my country which I proudly display. I certainly want to do a repeat at the Asian Games for this is likely to be my last Games.”
For now, it is back home and return to rehab for the gritty athlete.
“For quite a while now, I have been practising only once a day, in the morning session... now I’ll try and make it two and get some treatment for my back,” concluded Swapna as she gears up for the defence of her Asian Games crown.
