How Shristi Satishwar grew up to be a national level swimmer

Being a competitive swimmer is no easy task. Most people fail to recognise the amount of effort that must go into become an athlete of such high regard. Such swimmers are truly inspirational, and show us the important of determination, discipline and more.

Today we speak to Srishti Satishwar, a young national and state-level swimmer who is excelling at her sport. She has been in competitive training since she was 8 years old. She began her training at Nisha Millet Swimming Academy, where she spent two years. Afterwards, she joined Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre, Bangalore, where she trains till date.

In the words of Nisha Millet Chatterjee, a beloved coach of hers:

“Shristi trained with us for 2 years and she was always known for her work ethic even at the young age of 8 or 9 years. Srishti would be first in the water and the last one out since she would put in some extra practice post-workout to fine tune her butterfly or her starts and turns. We are excited to have her over one of these days to talk to the swimmers in our advanced batch. She will no doubt inspire the young kids and also we can’t wait to give her some congratulatory hugs and kisses! Go Shristi !”

A brief about her achievements.

Shristi has around 50 State and 40 National medals across her career. She has represented India in the International School Sports Federation (ISF) World School Games in Belgrade, Serbia in 2021. She has also recieved awards from the government for her swimming achievements. Shristi has come close to many national and state records. However, none are currently under her name at Sport Federation of India state and national level.

The beginning

Shristi began swimming at a very young age, and has loved the water ever since she first started. She began after her father encouraged her and saw her developing talent. After training with Nisha for 2 years, she began competitive training at BAC. She has stayed as a member of the team since, training under the reputed John Christopher.

Training

Shristi has trained in India for most of her life. She has around 11 gruelling sessions of workout every week. 8 sessions are swimming, which include both morning and evening sessions. 3 are dryland, gym training sessions. Her swimming sessions are typically 2 and a half hours long, and she completes an average of 7km per session. This puts her at a total of 5 hours of training per day, and 20 hours per week.

Shristi’s main stroke is freestyle, and excels at 200m and 400m events. It was her first choice as she enjoys the stroke and its training the most.

Additional training

Shristi trains at Invictus on Sarjapur Road, along with her father. Her dryland sessions help her improve her strength and muscle mass. She did intitally have a nutritionist, but has not continued under her, as she realised that she knows her body best, and can take care of it well by herself.

Shristi on competitive swimming

When asked about why she enjoys competitive swimming so much, Shristi answered us with the following.

“Competitive swimming has given me a chance to learn way more than I ever would have in a normal case. It’s taught me a lot of life lessons including perseverance, grit, and the value of hard work. It has also helped me balance my school life with sports, taught me time management, and kept me busy from distractions.”

She has always had a passion to win, and even if she doesnt, she has the drive to improve. She believes wholeheartedly in the training process. Shristi knows that this is what gets her the win in the end, as her hard work pays off.

For her future short term goals, Shristi plans to improve her timings to meet college swim teams. This is to help her become recruited at some of her dream colleges on their swim teams, although this is not her only goal.

Life Outside

Shristi also excels in her academic pursuits. Her school provides her leave when she needs, and most teachers are helpful in helping her catch up on classes she has missed. Shristi manages to stay on top of her academics by maintaining a rigorous schedule and preventing herself from getting distracted.

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt of Shristi’s competitve swimming journey.