PRAKASH Sajan

General
STARTING FROM SCRATCH
He says that when he returned to training in August 2020 at his new training base at the Aqua Nation Sports Academy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, following his break for a herniated disc and the COVID-19 pandemic, he felt like he had to start from scratch. "I resumed my personalised training regimen, which was a day that I will never forget. I was returning to the pool after six long months. When I jumped into the water I felt rigid and heavy. I thought I had reached a dead end and had to start again from the beginning." He had previously trained under coach Miguel Lopez at an International Swimming Federation [FINA] training centre in Phuket, Thailand, but left due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was happy to rejoin coach Pradeep Kumar [in Dubai] as I was in desperate need of some motivation. I could also meet my mother in Dubai. We were seeing each other after two years." (onmanorama.com, 11 May 2021)

REJECTING SURGERY
After being diagnosed with a herniated disc in late 2019, he was told he could either undergo surgery or physiotherapy to treat the problem. He opted for physiotherapy as he believed surgery could have ended his career. "Over the course of 2019, I'd suffered a slipped disc in my neck. It got so bad that I wasn't able to move my left arm before the South Asian Games in December. The doctors told me I could either try to recover through physiotherapy and exercise, or get surgery. But with the second option, my sports career was as good as over. It wasn't a good way to prepare for the Olympics, but you have to push yourself through these things." In mid-2020 he was still recovering and said the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo had worked to his advantage. "The big plus is that I don't have to rush my recovery from the injury. Earlier, I didn't have an option. The Olympics were in July [2020] and I had to push myself at the risk of aggravating my injury." (mykhel.com, 07 Jul 2020; espn.com, 30 Jun 2020; newindianexpress.com, 08 Jun 2020)

RIO EXPERIENCE
He says he paid close attention to the elite swimmers around him at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "Like anybody, the Olympics was my childhood dream which came true. I did not know much about the world of swimming before that. I could see a lot of improvements that could happen after seeing the other swimmers there. And I was more interested in learning from them and trying to improve. After seeing those swimmers, I could relate to a lot of the things that my coaches had been telling me, which I then wanted to use to improve my own swimming." (sportskeeda.com, 14 Apr 2021)

OCCUPATION
In 2019 he was appointed as an inspector at the Police Training College of Kerala Police in India. (insearchofsmile.com, 01 Nov 2020; english.manoramaonline.com, 02 Aug 2019)