The water is your friend, you don’t have to fight with water, just share the same spirit with water and it will help you move’ – Alexander Popov

In his swimming career, Arjun Muralidharan swimmer seemed to have embodied this quote through his spectacular swimming feats. He shared the same spirit with the water and emerged victorious at uncountable times. Swimming as a sport has been quite frequently skipped over in India mainly due to a lack of attainability in terms of facilities. The scenario is changing rapidly at the moment but back in 1996, when a nine-year-old boy broke the national record for the 50m butterfly in the Under-9 Age Group with a time of 34.60sec, swimming athletes were a rarity in the country. This record was the first of many incredible feats of Arjun Muralidharan swimmer and to his credit, this record still stands.

Arjun Muralidharan Swimmer’s Early Start to an Amazing Sports Journey

Arjun Muralidharan swimmer began his swimming coaching as early as 5 years old under the expert guidance of his father G Muralidharan. An Indian Navy Commander and a former Ranji Trophy athlete, G Muraalidharan saw the potential in his son and guided him towards victory-filled trajectory in the world of sports. He continued his training with his father and achieved the aforementioned national record at nine years old and in the year 2000 he was crowned the best swimmer in the 17th Sub-junior aquatics championships after he won 5 gold medals. He is genuinely an inspiring figure to all of us today, and all the swimmers look upon him. Like anyone else, Arjun Muralidharan swimmer also needs training or we can say coaching, let us discuss it.

International Training for Arjun Muralidharan Swimmer

Arjun Muralidharan was coached under a well-known British Olympic coach, named Sean Kelly, in the United Kingdom for approximately 7 months in the year 2007. After his adequate training, the swimmer went on to become the first and only Indian swimmer to win all 3 butterfly national titles with championship records simultaneously in the 2007 Senior National Aquatic Championships held at Goa India.

Moving further, in the year 2008, Arjun Muralidharan swimmer moved his training to Canada and got exceptionally trained under several world-class coaches like former Munich Olympics 100m and Butterfly finalist, Byron MacDonald.

International Athletic Achievements and Making the Country Proud

Arjun Muralidharan swimmer is considered one of the best Indian Butterfly swimmers. He successfully held all three National titles in 50m, 100m, and 200m butterfly for four consecutive years from the year 2004 to 2007. Additionally, he also won three successive Open National Championships from the year 2004 to 2006. Let us also mention that Arjun Muralidharan swimmer was the first Indian to win a gold medal in an international event ‘The Speedo Eastern Canadian Championships’ in 2006.

His Bronze medal win in the Commonwealth Youth Games, in 2004 gave him the title of the first Indian swimmer to do so. In the 2006 Asian Games, Muralidharan broke his own National 100m butterfly record and in the 2010 South Asian Games Arjun won a gold medal in the 100 m butterfly.

Arjun Muralidharan became the first and only Indian swimmer to win a gold medal at a foreign long course National Championship in the 200-meter butterfly during the 2008 Quebec Cup held in Montreal Quebec.

In the same year, Arjun won a bronze medal and broke the short course 200 butterfly national record with a timestamp of 1 hour 59 minutes 45 seconds becoming the first Indian swimmer to break the 2 mins barrier in the event during the Canada Cup. It is incredible to note that this record still stands untouched.

Injury and an Undefeatable Spirit

During his training and winning streak in Canada, Arjun Muralidharan swimmer met with an accident in early 2009 while heading towards Etobicoke swimming pool for a divisional competition. He suffered from a fractured jaw and was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. He resumed swimming training late in July 2009 after spending a few months in his home in India. However, Arjun Muralidharan, in a true sportsman spirit did not let this accident get him down and although his rehabilitation process affected his performance at the 2009 Open Nationals, he did not let it deter him. He continued with his training and in 2010, a year after his accident, won a gold medal in the 100m butterfly in the South Asian Games.

Mentoring Aspiring Swimmers

After a spectacular swimming career filled with numerous records and medals, Arjun Muralidharan shifted his mission to become a mentor for aspiring athletes. He opened the Bluewater Sports Academy with his father G Muralidharan and his brother Amar Muralidharan, a former national swimmer. The Academy has seen quite a bit of success and many of its students under the guidance of Arjun have secured medals in the sub-junior and junior-level national swimming events. He believes that India has a lot of potential in terms of athletes, especially in the area of swimming given the proper structure and guidance. He aspires to help as many athletic-minded students as he can and has decided to work towards the betterment of sports through his academy. It is worth mentioning that his academy is well-equipped with all the facilities such as a parking facility, clean water, and more.

Conclusion

It is commendable that such a decorated sports personality like Arjun Muralidharan continues to work to offer a talented athlete a better base and opportunity. The next generation of swimmers under his guidance is definitely on their way to collecting medals and flying India’s flag high on the podiums of the sports world.