{"id":4429,"date":"2026-11-03T23:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T18:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=4429"},"modified":"2026-11-03T23:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T18:10:20","slug":"dhinidhi-desinghu-wins-historic-bronze-in-womens-100m-freestyle-at-youth-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=4429","title":{"rendered":"Dhinidhi Desinghu wins historic bronze in women&#8217;s 100m freestyle at Youth Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" data-id=\"4430\" src=\"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/sports-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/sports-1.png 450w, https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/sports-1-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New Delhi:<\/strong> Sixteen-year-old Bengaluru swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu scripted history on Monday by clinching a bronze medal in the women&#8217;s 100m freestyle at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, becoming the first Indian female swimmer to reach a final and podium at the prestigious multi-sport event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dhinidhi clocked a personal best of 56.27 seconds in the final to finish third behind Croatia&#8217;s Ana Bobanovic (55.89) and New Zealand&#8217;s Alyssa Lawson (56.13). The milestone marked a remarkable transformation for the teenager, who once harbored an intense fear of water and famously ran back home in her swimsuit rather than enter a swimming pool during her childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflecting on her early reluctance, Dhinidhi recalled how her parents had to enter the water themselves to persuade her to take up swimming lessons, initially introduced as a convenient recreational activity due to the pool&#8217;s proximity to their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I know I was really scared. There&#8217;s a story from when I was six or seven&#8230; We went to the pool during summer break&#8230; I went to the pool and then ran back home in my swimsuit because I just hated being there,&#8221; Dhinidhi told Olympics.com after securing her medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preferring to spend her time reading books rather than playing outdoor sports, the young athlete gradually developed a passion for the sport as competitive instincts took over. That fierce determination previously carried her to the Paris 2024 Olympics at just 14 years of age, where she served as the youngest member of the Indian contingent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Sixteen-year-old Bengaluru swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu scripted history on Monday by clinching a bronze medal in the women&#8217;s 100m freestyle at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, becoming the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-display","category-sports","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4431,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions\/4431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}