Tokyo Olympics: Indian Swimmer Maana Patel Qualifies Through 'Universality Quota' | Olympics News
Indian woman swimmer Maana Patel’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics has been confirmed through ‘Universality quota’, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) said. Maana will take part in the 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Games and is the third Indian swimmer to have qualified after both Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash achieved Olympic Qualification Timing (OQT) ‘A’ level recently. The Universality quota allows one male and one female competitor from a country to participate in the Olympics, provided no other swimmer from the same gender qualifies for the Games or receives a FINA invite based on his or her Olympic Selection time (B time).
“It’s an amazing feeling. I have heard about the Olympics from fellow swimmers and watched it on the television and seen a lot of pictures,” Maana told Olympics.com.
“But to be there this time, competing with the best in the world, just gives me goosebumps,” she added.
The 21-year-old sustained an ankle injury in 2019 and only made a comeback earlier this year.
“It was a tough year to come back after the injury,” Maana admitted.
