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Srihari Nataraj is an accomplished swimmer, representing India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He could not leave a mark at the competition after he failed to progress to the semifinals of the men's 100m backstroke.
Nataraj clocked 54.31 seconds which saw him finish at 27th position out of 40 competitors. Notably, only the top 16 swimmers make a cut for the semifinals.
The 23-year-old finished third in the Heat 3, with Marek Ulrich of Germany leading the heat with a time of 53.74 seconds, 0.57 seconds faster than the Indian. Interestingly, his personal best mark of 53.77 seconds which he achieved at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, assured his qualification for the Olympics.
A look at Srihari Nataraj's career
Srihari Nataraj has participated in several international competitions thus far in his career. He competed in short-course swimming at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in 2017.
He also participated at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, followed by the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. In the same year, he competed in numerous events at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Nataraj continued his swimming journey participating at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Remarkably, he earned the Tokyo Olympics qualification following an approval of his 'A' standard qualification time in the men's 100m backstroke at the Sette Colli Trophy.
He has also achieved notable results at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he qualified for the 100m backstroke, finishing seventh with a time of 54.31 seconds. In addition, he created an Indian record of 2:00.84 in the preliminaries of the 200m backstroke.
The talented swimmer won 10 medals in last year's National Games, eight of which were gold. According to a PTI report, Nataraj has not improved his fastest time in the 100m backstroke race since 2021, which is 53.77 seconds.
