 Choudhury in 2004 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| National team |  India |
| Born | 2 January 1970 Hugli, West Bengal, India |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Freestyle, Butterfly |
Medal record | |
Bula Choudhury (born 2 January 1970, Hugli, India) is an Indian former swimmer. She is an Arjuna awardee, Padma shri awardee, former India national women's swimming champion and elected as MLA from 2006 to 2011 representing Nandanpur in West Bengal state of India. [1]
Her first national competition, at age nine, she dominated her age group by winning six gold medals in six events. She continued to improve, winning various junior and national championships, as well as six gold medals at the 1991 South Asian Federation Games. She went to her first nationals, at the age of 12, which is an all-time record. This also guaranteed her a place in the relay quartet for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games as well as a prominent place on the list of Asiad probables. [2]
In 1984 she set a national 100m butterfly record of 1:06.19 sec. During the Seoul Asian Games in 1986, she created a record of 1:05.27 sec in 100m butterfly and another record of 2:19.60 sec in 200m butterfly. [3] Choudhury started long-distance swimming in 1989 and crossed the English Channel that year. She won the 81-km (50- mile) Murshidabad Long Distance Swim in 1996, and in 1999 she crossed the English Channel again. In August, 2004, she set this record by swimming across the Palk Straits from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu in nearly 14 hours. [3]
She became the first woman to have swum across sea channels off five continents in 2005 —including the Strait of Gibraltar, the Tyrrhenian Sea, Cook Strait, Toroneos Gulf (Gulf of Kassándra) in Greece, the Catalina Channel off the California coast, and from Three Anchor Bay to Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa. She created a record for swimming the 30 km track in 3 hours & 26 minutes. She is now planning to establish a swimming academy in Kolkata.[ citation needed ]
Mihir Sen was a famous Indian long distance swimmer and lawyer. He was the first Asian to conquer the English Channel from Dover to Calais in 1958, and did so in the fastest time. He was the only man to swim the oceans of the five continents in one calendar year (1966). These included the Palk Strait, Dardanelles, Bosphorus, Gibraltar, and the entire length of the Panama Canal. This unique achievement earned him a place in The Guinness Book of Records as the "world's greatest long distance swimmer".
Arati Saha, born on 24th September 1940 – 23 August 1994, was an Indian long-distance swimmer. She was best known for becoming the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel on 29 September 1959 at the age of 19. In 1960, she became the first Indian sportswoman to be awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour in India.
Shiny Kurisingal Wilson is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 metres for 14 years. Shiny Abraham Wilson represented India more than 75 times in international competition. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups. She is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the Asian competitions. She collected a total of 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.
Tao Li is a Chinese-born Singaporean competitive swimmer who specializes in the backstroke and butterfly.
Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-born American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at six Paralympic Games, winning 30 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
Virdhawal Vikram Khade is an Indian swimmer. He competed in the men's 50, 100, and 200 meters Freestyle swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, setting an Indian national record in 100 meters Freestyle. He failed to qualify for the semifinals in his events despite winning his qualification heat. Khade won a bronze medal in the 50 meters butterfly event at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou; it was India's first Asian Games medal in swimming in 24 years. He was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2011 by the Government of India.
Bhuvneshwari Kumari is a former women's squash champion from India. She is a recipient of prestigious awards like Padma Shri and Arjuna Award. She is also a record holder of Guinness Book of World Records for being India's national champion 16 consecutive times. She belongs to the former royal family of Alwar.
Madhumita Bisht is an Indian former badminton player from West Bengal. She is an eight-time National singles champion, nine-time doubles winner and a twelve-time mixed doubles winner. She represented India in the 1992 Olympics in Women's singles discipline.
Anupama Gokhale is an Indian chess player. She won the Indian Women's Championship five times and the Asian Women's Championship twice. In 1985 she was also joint winner, with Malaysian player Audrey Wong, of the Asian Junior Girls' Championship in Adelaide. This achievement automatically earned both players the title of Woman International Master (WIM).
Prasana Karmakar is an Indian Para swimmer. He won 2 Bronze medals in 2014 Incheon Asian Games. He is also known for representing India as the swimming team coach for 2016 RIO Paralympic games.
Joseph Isaac Schooling is a Singaporean former professional swimmer who specialised in butterfly, freestyle, and medley events. He was the gold medalist in the 100m butterfly at the 2016 Olympics, achieving Singapore's first ever Olympic gold medal. His winning time of 50.39s broke multiple records at the National, Southeast Asian, Asian, and Olympic levels.
Supriya Mondal is an Indian swimmer and trains at the Dolphin Academy, Bangalore under coach Nihar Ameen who has trained Olympians like Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal. Srikanth is supported by the GoSports Foundation, Bangalore and has been part of their scholarship programme since 2012.
Eliza Nelson, née Eliza Mendonca, is an Indian field hockey player and a former captain of the women's national field hockey team of India. She received the Arjuna Award in 1981 and the Government of India awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1983.
Taranath Narayan Shenoy, is a deaf and visually impaired Indian swimmer and an honoree of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a winner of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, having successfully completed the English Channel, Catalina Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1990.
Satendra Singh Lohiya is an Indian swimmer with 70% disability. On 24 June 2018 he crossed the English Channel as part of a swimming relay team which, for the first time saw four para swimmers from India cross the English Channel. He completed the channel in 12 hours and 26 minutes, setting a new record. He has been selected for the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award 2019 for first Indian para swimmer which was given by the Honorable President of India Ram Nath Kovind and The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi also recognized and appreciated Satendra Singh Lohiya's hard work and blessed him for his future endeavor on 13 March 2020. He received Vikram Award, the highest state-level sports awards in Madhya Pradesh, for swimming from the Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan, MP on 23 December 2014. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for 2024 for his contribution in the field of Sports.
The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, formerly known as the National Adventure Awards is the highest adventure sports honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two individuals to reach the summit of Mount Everest along with Edmund Hillary in 1953. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The recipients are honoured for their "outstanding achievement in the field of adventure activities on land, sea and air" over the last three years. The lifetime achievement is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated excellence and have devoted themselves in the promotion of adventure sports. As of 2020, the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Tenzing Norgay along with a cash prize of ₹15 lakh (US$18,000)."
Meenakshi Pahuja is an Indian lecturer and marathon swimmer. After a successful career as a competitive swimmer, she became a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College, and later entered open water swimming. She received a 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar award.
Syamala Goli also referred to as Goli Syamala is an Indian endurance swimmer, Producer, Creative Director and Writer to the Animation Series and Movies. In 19th March 2021, she became the second Indian woman and second woman in the world after Bula Choudhury to have crossed the Palk Strait. She completed the feat at the age of 47.
