Priyadarshini Suresh, An Olympian in the Making

A potential Olympian, Priyadarshini Suresh is the new sports star in Chennai. The 15-year-old girl is just back home after winning a silver in Triple Jump at the World School Athletic Championship in Wuhan, China.

Priya has twelve national gold medals in her kitty in long Jump and triple jump. Now she has set her eyes on the 2020 Olympics. The bubbly athlete shares her dream, "Definitely 2020 Olympics is what I'm aiming for but soon I have the common wealth youth games and world school games coming up so I have my target set for that as well."

Earlier, Priyadarshini emerged No. 1 in Long Jump and Triple Jump both at the National School Games and at the National Youth Athletics Championship.

Priyadarshini is a super achiever in her studies as well. She had secured 499 out of 500 in the class X board exams last year at the DAV Matriculation School. She devotes four hours for her practice, only after school; her entire morning goes for studies. Inspiring school students to pursue their sports dreams, Priyadarshini explained, "The key is planning. In case you know what you want to do and you plan for it I don't think anything is impossible."

The class XI student got drawn to athletics through her father and grand father, both athletic champions. Her industrialist dad C S Suresh was a university champion in long jump and triple jump in 1987. Her grand father Sankaran had represented India in the World University Games in Budapest in 1956. His 7.19 M long jump record at the University of Madras was broken only after 50 years. Olympian Jesse Owens was fond of him and had even called him to the US" said Suresh who added "I think long jump and triple jump run in our blood, it's in our family."

Priyadarshini's mother Kavitha is a Dentist who also teaches at a private medical college. She adds, "Priyadarshini is not giving up on anything. She keeps track of news and music just like any normal child."

Winner of the Chacha Nehru award twice for athletic excellence and the Chief Minister's trophy in Tamilnadu, her proud coach M V Rajasekhar says this international debut win is just the beginning. He's confident that "Priyadarshini will definitely become an Olympian."

However the focused class eleven girl says she leads a normal life with no pressure. She reiterates "I listen to music and do things what everyone of my age does."