Their Olympic hopes already floundering, India's elite swimmers, including Virdhawal Khade, will have to wait at least until the end of the month to resume their training. They have been in limbo since March 25, when the country first entered a lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Restricted from training since then, Khade had told ESPN that his Olympic hopes are in jeopardy and he is considering calling time on his career. "Right now I don't have words for how I'm feeling. I can see my chance for the Olympics slipping from my hands," he had said.
In the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) guidelines, issued on May 17 for the fourth phase of the Covid-19 lockdown, sports complexes and stadiums had been allowed to open without spectators, clearing the path for at least the resumption of halted training camps. But swimming pools and gyms were specifically prohibited in the same. Swimming pools remained prohibited in the guidelines of the fifth phase of the lockdown, issued for June.
"We have been talking almost every day with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS). We realise the permission to allow training can only come from the MHA. In the next round of relaxations (sixth phase) we are pretty sure that for elite athletes, something positive will emerge," said Monal Chokshi, secretary general of the Swimming Federation of India.
Chokshi said that the wording of the MHA guidelines made it difficult to resume training. "We are in touch with MYAS, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), as well as the Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and they are in contact with the decision makers at the MHA [to address the issue]."
The restrictions for swimmers have persisted even though Rijiju had assured athletes in a conference call that sports training for elite athletes on the brink of Olympic qualification would begin in the end of May. "Once the lockdown is lifted, we will resume the training of our elite athletes followed by other SAI Training Centres in phased manner. The camps will be for those sports which have qualified for Olympics or the sports whose Olympic qualification is in future," Rijiju had said.
Chokshi said that while he agreed with the MHA order that swimming was not advisable, there needed to be a difference in the way it applied to recreational and competitive swimming. "We are trying to get a modification in the MHA order for that purpose," he said. "It should be possible to have competitive training in SAI facilities or responsible private academies where it is possible to enforce the standard operating protocols for swimming." He was referring to the document the federation alongside the MYAS had drafted on May 19 in the hopes of resuming training. "The Swimming-specific SOPs were meant to dictate how social distancing measures can be undertaken in the swimming pool. We agreed to have a maximum of eight swimmers in a batch and have swimmers start from opposite ends of the pool. We also planned on increasing the chlorine percentage in the pools and mandated the use of masks before and after training." .
However, he added, "The SOP is an operating document, not a policy document. It can only come into effect after the policy document, which allows for the opening of swimming, is enforced. Unless they change those norms, the Sports Ministry cannot give permission."
Chokshi, though, remained hopeful of the MYAS and the Sports Minister pushing their case with the MHA. "They are fully cooperative and they understand the problem we are facing. We are on the same page. The minister has personally assured he is looking into this matter," he said.
Rijiju, though, had himself admitted earlier that any relaxation in an already issued MHA order, in favour of sportspersons, was unlikely to occur. "Sports events don't get any relaxations under Disaster Management Act. We don't fall under the category of essential services," he had stated in a conference call with Olympic hopeful athletes on May 11.