It’s the oddest thing,” says Om Autar Seth, 82. “I was diagnosed with mild asthma more than 50 years ago but the attacks kick in only when I am walking and never when I am swimming!”

While doctors believe the water supports his body weight, which helps his breathing, the truth is that the Hyderabad-based businessman is a water baby. In November 2017, at the 14th National Aquatics Championship in Mysuru, Seth won a silver medal in the 400-m freestyle; a silver in the 100-m backstroke; and bronze in the 200-m freestyle. In April that year, he took part in the World Masters Games at Auckland in New Zealand, and stood fourth in the 400-m and 800-m freestyle in the 80-85 age group.

Seth, who swims 500-800 m daily, remarks, “I see other people my age also swim daily but they pause after every 100 yards and hardly anyone does it without a break. At international meets, when I participated in the 800 m, people clapped loud and hard when I came out of the water.”

A lover of sports since he was a child, Seth played school and college basketball but harboured a special love for swimming. “As kids, we used to swim in the canal on the outskirts of Amritsar and I entered a swimming pool for the first time only at the age of 25. This was in Tatanagar, Jamshedpur, where I was posted for work.”

A metallurgical engineer from Banaras Hindu University, Seth is in the business of supplying building materials. After working for the Steel Authority of India for many years, he quit the undertaking and settled in Hyderabad in 1978. At the age of 50, he set up his own business in the city.

One of the first things he did was to get a membership of the Country Club in Hyderabad and the Secunderabad Club because both have large pools. “I had never planned on competing and swam for the sheer pleasure of it. But, when I was already 60 years old, the swimming coach prompted me to start entering swimming competitions. He said I could win medals.”

The first medal Seth won was a gold in the 200-m freestyle at the state championships, held in Hyderabad in 2005. After that, he entered the national championships at the end of the same year. “I was hesitant but I did participate and won silver,” recalls Seth, who has competed in many national championships since.

Buoyed by his achievements in a sport he is truly passionate about, Seth began to learn new techniques, and tweak his strategy like a champ. He recalls the time when he won only one silver, in the 50-m backstroke, at the 2007 national meet in Mumbai. “When I pondered over what had gone wrong, I realised I was only doing the short lengths—only the 50 m. So I switched to stamina swimming, which means doing longer lengths,” he says. It didn’t take long for his coach to give him the green signal to participate in the longer races. Seth was now 70 years old—and raring to go!

Asked to name one unforgettable sporting experience, Seth says, “The one I value most is my haul of four gold medals at the Thiruvananthapuram games in 2006. That will remain my best.” What’s next? Our champ has set his sights on the World Masters Games in Japan in 2021, a few months after the Olympics. But first, he’s off to Vizag for a nationals meet this month.

—Shyamola Khanna

Photo: Karthik Kumar
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
October 2018