Nethra Kumanan

Nethra Kumanan (born 21 August 1997) is an Olympian in the Sport of ILCA6 Women (popularly known as Laser Radial Sailing) from India. She qualified for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics at the Last Chance Regatta, an Olympic qualifier, in Hyeres, France on 26 April 2024 claiming the quota under the Emerging Nations Programme. She is the second to qualify from India after Vishnu Saravanan.

Early life and education
Nethra Kumanan was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Her father V. C. Kumanan, an entrepreneur, runs an IT company and mother Sreeja Kumanan, is a HR Professional. Her brother Naveen Kumanan is studying B Tech (IS) at Michigan State University, USA. Her brother was also in the Indian National Sailing Squad before he decided to focus on studies.

Nethra did her schooling from Patasala Montessori School upto Standard 6 and thereafter studied at The School, KFI (Krishnamurti Foundation of India) till Standard 10. Thereafter she took to National Institute of Schooling (NIOS) and finished her 12th and this also helped her to stay focused on her sailing training.

Nethra has recently completed her B.Tech- Mechanical Engineering from SRM University, Vadapalani campus. She is now pursuing her MBA. Nethra firmly believes that studies keeps her mind strongly engaged and opens up a panoramic view to the world that helps keep her mind active and focused particularly during the tough moments in her game. Earlier, she joined Anna University in the Mechanical Engineering under the sports quota in 2017 but had to drop out after a year to prepare for the Asian Games.

Co-curricular activities
In her formative years, she learnt a lot of arts and sports and won many trophies. These include Bharatanatyam which she learnt for about six years under her guru Alarmel Valli, a leading Indian Classical dancer and choreographer, a Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee. She was an avid arts person and has won trophies at Global Art International Competitions held in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia in various years. She also learnt Kalaripayattu, mountain biking, tennis, skating, basketball, swimming and was also good in her academics.

She started sailing at a summer class in 2010 at Tamil Nadu Sailing Association's 'Summer Sailing Camp' where she found her passion.

Career
Nethra is the first Indian woman to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in sailing directly and by being the first Asian at the Olympic qualifier event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At her maiden Olympics, she finished 35th overall and with a best finish of 15th in the third race of the Laser Radial category for women out of 44 participants.

Earlier in January 2020, Nethra Kumanan became the first Indian woman to win a bronze medal at the Hempel Sailing World Cup Series, in Miami, U.S.A. She has also won over 20 medals at national and international sailing championships and trained at India, Israel, Hungary, Denmark and Spain.

Nethra has represented India at the Asian Games in 2014 in South Korea and in 2018 in Jakarta where she finished seventh and fifth respectively.

Philosophy
"Sailing is a great amount of freedom. It is sometimes just leisure, people do it for fun. We do it every day with a lot more intensity. On the ocean it is all about the wind, water, and trying to understand the world and connecting with the boat. Then we have to figure out the shortest distance that we have to make in the fastest way. So, you need to be a lot more involved than other sports."