Youth Olympics 2026: Dhinidhi Desinghu wins India's first-ever swimming medal

Dhinidhi Desinghu bagged a bronze medal in girls' 100m freestyle to open India's medal tally at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal on Monday.

The 17-year-old from Bengaluru clocked a personal best and Best Indian time of 56.27s to finish on the podium at the Dakar Aquatic Centre.

Dhinidhi, who was the youngest Indian in the Paris Olympics contingent two years ago, finished behind Ana Bobanovic of Croatia (55.89s) and Alyssa Lawson (56.13s) of New Zealand to take the third spot.

The youngster clocked 27.31s to the first 50m split and was placed fifth before surging her way forward in the final 50m to win the medal.

Dhinidhi's exploits comes just a day after Tirthank Pegu finished just outside the podium in boys' 100m butterfly, finishing fourth and losing out on a historic medal by just 0.27s.

Dhinidhi's medal win is now India's first-ever medal in swimming at the Youth Olympics, surpassing Pegu's fourth-place finish to become India's best-ever performance in the sport.

Before the 2026 Youth Olympics got underway, the best Indian performance at the Games was a sixth-place finish for Srihari Nataraj during the 2018 Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina in Boys' 100m backstroke.