There is no limit to what you can achieve: Himanshu Nandal

From basking in the glory on the judo mat to creating waves in the swimming pool, Himanshu Nandal’s story is inspirational.

A visually impaired para-athlete from Rohtak, Haryana, Himanshu is currently India's top-ranked S11 swimmer—a classification for swimmers with very low or no vision.

Himanshu was just three months old when his family noticed irregularities with his vision. A detailed check-up revealed optic nerve failure, which led to complete blindness.

“Sports is the best thing that happened to me. I was always a fitness enthusiast and wanted to break the barrier that visually disabled people can’t excel in sports. That was all the more reason for my increased motivation,” Himanshu told The Bridge, in an exclusive interview.

“There is no limit to what you can achieve, just keep exploring,” he added.

Himanshu comes from a family deeply rooted in sports. His father, Balwant Singh, a former national hockey player, now serves with the Haryana Police. His uncle, Manjeet Nandal, finished fourth in judo at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Following his family’s footsteps, Himanshu took up judo in his early years but switched to swimming in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his training. He began training at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi.

“The rules of Judo were not so evolved then, an athlete with 50% visibility and fully visually impaired would compete together. I wanted to choose a fair sport and something I would enjoy doing, and it turned out to be swimming,” he said.

A few months later, in his first para swimming national in Udaipur in March 2022, Himanshu won two gold medals and a new national record.

In the same year, he went on to win three gold medals and set three national records at the National Para Championship in Guwahati in November 2022.

“It was a breakthrough moment for me. I got two golds with a new record. I was disqualified in one event due to starting,” Himanshu said.

The journey of national titles took off from there. He even qualified for the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.

Himanshu, a graduate in Political Science from Delhi University, has the distinction of being a top-ranked S11 swimmer in the country. S11 classification is for swimmers with very low or no vision and are required to wear blackened goggles to maintain fairness.

“I am the only swimmer to have achieved the minimum qualifying standard in three events for the Paris Olympics. I could not go due to quota issues. But it was easy for me to convince myself as I took it as another experience. It motivated me to do even better,” he said.

“I see more potential in myself for the upcoming tournaments, especially the 2026 Asian Games. I have a clear goal in my mind. If I can improve my timing, it has the potential to get me a podium finish,” he added.

Counting his strokes

Himanshu, like other swimmers in his category, uses a lane rope to swim in a straight line and a ‘tapper’ to signal the approaching wall. He relies on counting strokes for comfort during training.

“I swim with the help of lane ropes that act as a tactile feedback to me. I can touch and feel, and swim in a straight direction. There is a trained tapper, a stick with a soft ball attached to it. My father used a collapsible cobweb stick and attached a softball to it to make a tapper,” he explained.

“I always count my strokes. It helps when we are doing sets and there is nobody to tell us. Sometimes I am a stroke behind or ahead, but mostly it’s accurate,” he added.

When asked how he gauged his competition, Himanshu said, “We cannot sense who we are competing against. The entire thing is about beating ourselves. That’s the reason world records in para-swimming are broken after a long time. For instance, the 400m freestyle world record created in 1992 still stands,” he concluded.

Himanshu, along with other para swimmers, is in France for the Para Swimming World Series 2025 in Paris from May 2-4. He has already qualified for the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore, scheduled from September 21-27. After Paris, Himanshu will undergo a month-long training in England.