Swapna means a dream. Swapna Barman’s bed-ridden father, Panchanan, often dreamt of his daughter becoming a ‘world champion’. What her father dreamt became a reality to some extent as his daughter on Wednesday became the first Indian woman to win the gruelling heptathlon at the Asian Games. Swapna’s father, a rickshaw puller, has been bed ridden since he suffered a stroke in 2013.

But tonight, he will be a happy man even if sleep will be elusive in the joy of seeing his daughter take the final step to the gold will keep replaying in his mind and then there will be the din of crackers being burst in their colony in Jalpaiguri in celebration of their famous daughter’s amazing win.

She now has the gold in both Asian championships, from 2017, and also the Asian Games gold.

Swapna’s mother works at a tea estate to make a living.

Now, Swapna is an Asian Games champion, too. Ironically, it is in heptathlon, the ultimate multi-event test of a champion in athletics.

The survivor

Swapna survived the last two days in pain — not just the pain of competing in seven events, which make up the heptathlon, but also a crushing tooth-ache.

She tried to alleviate the tooth ache with a kinesiology tape on her right jaw for she was worried about taking any medicines, lest it may be a ‘wrong’ one and could lead to problems with drug testing.

Heptathlon is no ordinary event. It is the amalgamation of seven events for women, contested over two days. On Tuesday she contested in 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m run. On Wednesday it was long jump, javelin and the 800m.

Being unique

Swapna is unique in every way. The young lady born in the tea estate region near Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, has had six toes on each feet from birth. Finding footwear wide enough for her for athletics was an arduous job in India.

One of the four children of her parents, her first battle was survival. With a meagre income coming into the family, her early sporting career was tough. But she was picked by the Sports Authority of India, Kolkata. That helped as did the training camps.

Four years ago, she came and went back almost unnoticed at the Incheon Asian Games. She was 18, but finished fifth with 5178 points.

Four years on, she is the champion of the continent with a total of 6,026, almost 850 points better.

Flow of rewards

The journey to Incheon saw her come through a Silver at the Junior Asian Track and Field in Chinese Taipei 2014 and the Senior Federation Cup, Patiala 2014. In the time since, she has emerged as India’s best multi-athlete.

Finding the right food was not easy. Staying in coaching camps helped and took care of that. But what helped most was the rewards she got from here and there.

Among them was a ₹1.5 lakh Annual Sports Scholarship from a company going by the name of Great Sports Infra, South Asia’s leading provider of turnkey solutions for sports infrastructure.

The sponsorship came in 2017 after her success and potential attracted attention from GoSports Foundation’s Athlete Mentorship Programme under the cricketing legend, Rahul Dravid.

Swapna used part of this money to make her life, and of those around her, easier, if that was possible. The money she gets from various sources like state and national rewards and sponsorships is also used for her family and her father’s care.

And yes, for building a wall around her house, which is what did with her first earnings some years back.

Swapna’s is no ordinary story; it is not another rags-to-riches story either. Her’s is a story of survival. She is also a dream — a dream rolled in with grit and determination and pain.

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