KUMANAN Nethra

General
BORROWED BOAT
Her boat was damaged in transit ahead of the Asian Olympic qualifiers at the 2021 Mussanah Open Championship in Oman. Her coach suggested she exchange boats with her teammate Ram Milan Yadav, which she then used to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games. "He [Yadav] was nice enough to understand that at the end of the day, it was about one of us winning an Olympic berth and helpfully gave me his boat. It was really a team effort." (espn.in, 09 Apr 2021)

TRAINING ABROAD
In 2019 she began training in Gran Canaria, Spain. "I trained with a lot of quality international sailors that helped me a lot. The academy in Gran Canaria has a well qualified team surrounding the athletes. All of us benefited immensely from the environment that they've worked hard to build." (sportstar.thehindu.com, 11 Apr 2021; sportstar.thehindu.com, 07 Apr 2021)

HIATUS
She took a break from sailing after failing to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "I took a year off after that to reassess to surround myself with a team rather than just one person and dedicated myself to the process rather than just the goal and it obviously made the difference." (yachtracing.life, 16 Apr 2021; sportstar.thehindu.com, 11 Apr 2021)

PARENTAL GUIDANCE
Her father runs an IT company, and assists her by providing analysis of her results and those of her rivals. "My parents are my rocks. Dad enjoys doing his part of the research, where I stand compared to the others and analysing the results and facts that he comes across. With the feedback I give him, he puts two and two together. If we ever feel like this dream is unrealistic, which was the case after the Rio 2016 qualifiers when I quit for a year, he will let me know and bring me back to earth." (olympicchannel.com, 08 Apr 2021; olympicchannel.com, 25 Mar 2021)