Indian swimmer Maana Patel on Friday became the first female swimmer to represent the country in Tokyo Olympics 2020. Indian sports minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce her selection in the prestigious sports tournament. With that, Patel also became the third Indian swimmer to qualify for Tokyo Olympics.

The 2020 Summer Olympics, also known as Tokyo 2020, is scheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo. The swimming competition in the Tokyo Olympics will take place from July 25 to August 6.

Who is Maana Patel

Backstroke Indian swimmer Maana Patel started swimming at the age of 7. As she grew up, she began participating in various swimming competitions. At 13, Maana took part at the 40th Junior National Aquatics Championship where she completed the 200m backstroke in 2: 23.41s. This became her first record-breaking achievement. Swimmer Shikha Tandon held the record before Maana. Tandon made it at the Asian Age Group Championship in Tokyo in August 2009.

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Maana has several medals and feats to her name. She has won a gold medal in the 50m backstroke and 200m backstroke each at the National Games.

In 2015, she won a gold medal in the 100m backstrokes at the 60th National School Games. This became her first national record-smashing feat in backstroke. She also made it to the Olympic Gold Quest in 2015.

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Maana also won a gold at the 12th South Asian Games 2016 in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay and 4×100 metre medley relay and brought 3 silvers home in the 50 metres, 100 metres and 200-metre backstroke category.

Apart from several golds, she also won a bronze 50-metre freestyle at the 12th South Asian Games 2016.