Water was very cold: Srihari Nataraj flags pool temperature issue at 2025 Khelo India University Games

"Someone needs to learn how to conduct tournaments!!"

India's double Olympian swimmer Srihari Nataraj made a scathing remark on his social media in between the ongoing 2025 Khelo India University Games in Rajasthan.

Nataraj, 24, was left unimpressed by the extremely low pool temperature. Speaking to The Bridge, the swimmer maintained that the cold water made racing "unbearable" and that it was far below accepted competitive standards.

"Basically, it was just really cold water, and it was becoming very unbearable to spend time in the water," he said.

Racing shortest distance of 50m, as per Nataraj, in the pool was "okay." But the longer distances raised problems for the athletes. Nataraj's social media post was also reshared by other swimmers, including Bhavya Sachdeva, who has bagged six gold medals so far in the competition.

The swimmers checked the pool temperature using watches and equipment, and found that the water had dropped to levels completely unsuitable for racing.

As per the World Aquatics Swimming Pool Certification's Article 2.7, "The water temperature shall be 25º TO 28º Centigrade."

The temperature at the SMS Swimming Pool, where the tournament is being conducted, fell well below 20º centigrade.

"Usual racing water temperature is around 25-26 degrees, and here it was 18 degrees," said Nataraj

"Some parts it even went to 17 degrees… that is extremely cold for swimming," he further explained.

Anything below 21° centigrade is considered cold enough to affect muscle function, breathing rhythm, and race performance.

Temperatures in Rajasthan in late November typically sit between 23-27°C during the day, but evenings dip into the low teens. These conditions can significantly reduce water temperature if heaters are not installed.

Nataraj confirmed that while the warm-up pool had heating, the main pool, where races were held, did not.

"There were heaters in the swim-down pool, but not in the main pool. Ideally, the heater should have been in the main pool," said Nataraj, who bagged nine gold medals for Jain University in the competition.

“It was becoming very tough to swim in the main pool and race in it because of how cold it was.”

When asked whether swimmers attempted to raise the issue with organisers, Nataraj said the timing made any intervention impossible.

"We didn’t," he said.

"We can't do anything about it last minute because it takes about a week to heat the pool even if you install heater. None of us were aware of the situation until we got here for the competition," Nataraj added.

Event praised despite temperature lapse

While the water temperature was the biggest challenge, Nataraj also pointed out minor scheduling issues.

"Some days we had too many multiple events, and other days there was nothing. The scheduling could have been a little better,” he said.

But he emphasised that the 2025 Khelo India University Games itself was well executed.

"Everything else was fine. It's a good initiative and another opportunity for all of us to compete. They didn’t have delays in releases or any of that. The only issue everyone faced was the water temperature,” he said.

"Other than that everything else was fine… the way they conducted the tournament was never an issue. They just didn’t realise how cold it was or they didn’t make a change to it," he added.