Kutraleeswaran

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Kutraleeswaran
குற்றாலீஸ்வரன்
Kutral.jpg
Born
Other namesKutral
OccupationVenture capital principal
AwardsGuinness World Record
Arjuna Award

Kutraleeswaran Ramesh (born 8 November 1981), popularly known as Kutraleeswaran or Kutral, is an Indian swimmer and the founder of Nanban Sports Foundation which aims to help Indian sportspersons who are suffering financially. He swam across the Palk Strait, in April 1994. He swam across the English Channel in 1994 when he was 13 years old and in the same year, he swam across the Rottnest Channel in Australia, the Straits of Messina in Italy, the Zannone Circeo in Italy and the Ten Degree Channel to surpass Mihir Sen's record of completing five channels in a calendar year. He received the Arjuna Award and the Guinness world record in 1996.[1] Currently, he runs a foundation named Nanban Sports Foundation to help Indian sportspersons who are suffering financially to spend for their sporting activities.

Early life[edit]

Kutral was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu. He was born to Ramesh, an advocate at the Madras High Court and his wife Sivakami, a home maker. His family moved to Chennai when he was one month old.

Swimming[edit]

He began his swimming at the age of seven. His first attempt was at a district level swimming contest known as the "Ribbon Meet". It is called a ribbon meet is because the top 6 out of the 8 district level finalists get a ribbon. In that contest, he got sixth position and a ribbon. He took part in many district and state-level contests. At the age of 10, he took part in 5 km swimming competition in the sea. Though the youngest participant, he managed to get fourth place and this event was a stepping stone in his swimming career in 1991.

Palk Strait and English Channel swim (1994)[edit]

In 1994, his next swimming expedition was to surpass Mihir Sen's record of completing five channels in a calendar year, a record that was unbroken for over 30 years. He first swam across the Palk Strait (Ram Setu), which lies between Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka in April 1994 at the age of 12.[2]

After completing Palk, he went on to cross the English Channel on 15 August 1994. He swam across the Rottnest Channel in Australia, the Straits of Messina at Italy, and the Zannone Circeo at Italy. Finally, he crossed the Ten Degree Channel on 30 December 1994. Thus, he swam across the six channels, all in 1994, and his feat is included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

1995–1998[edit]

After setting the record, he took part in competitions all over the world. Between 1995 and 1998, he was the only participant from Asia of the 25 swimmers selected from across the world for the World Series in Swimming. He represented India in more than six competitions around the world and won medals for India, which includes the 1st prize in Switzerland. He was awarded the Arjuna Award by the Indian Government for bringing laurels to the country and for the Guinness record in 1996.

The Tamil Nadu State government sponsored and provided holistic support for his entire Guinness record contributing swims (1994) and the Indian Government sponsored one of his International competitions (1995). He managed these feats in parallel with his elementary and higher secondary education, post which (in 1998), he made a conscious decision to retire early from professional swimming, as private corporate sponsors were nonexistent.

Education and career[edit]

Kutral did his schooling in DAV, Gopalapuram, Chennai. The school was very supportive to him as he pursued his passion of swimming by conducting extra classes for him when he missed classes owing to his involvement in sports.

He obtained a bachelor's degree in engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy . He then went on to pursue his masters MS(Microelectonics) from the University of Texas in Dallas,TX, USA. He then took up a career with Intel as a Design engineer, which he later resigned from due to his passion for business. To fortify his skills in the business arena, he went on to pursue MBA from IIM, Bangalore, which he again had to quit midway after around 2 months, as he got admitted for MBA from Sloan Institute of Management in Massachusetts, USA, which has a very high repute globally. He completed his MBA and moved in as an Investment Banker with Barcays and later switched to Citibank where his career took a steep progression till the level of Vice President, Corporate & Investment Bank. Despite being highly successful, he took the decision of quitting his career with Citi abruptly to quench his passion in Venture Capital business. He joined FlowCapital, a company that provides Venture Capital services and later took over as the head of Venture Capital wing at 'Nanban Ventures', which is the Venture Capital arm of Nanban Enterprise.

Sports foundation[edit]

Nanban Sports Foundation.jpg

On National sports day, 2021 (29-Aug), he launched a foundation named Nanban Sports Foundation with the mission statement of 'Establish sports as truly rewarding opportunity, for athletes, corporates, foundations, government, public and India.' In his own words cited below, he expressed heartfelt ecstasy at establishing the foundation

"As a former athlete who had to give up sports owing to the lack of financial support, this small aspirational step towards changing the status quo, is extremely close to my heart."

The objective of the foundation is to provide financial support to aspiring sportspersons on one side and give some financial support to yesteryear sport champions from India who are needful of financial support. The ultimate objective is to encourage the number of people who take up sports as a career option, by providing them better assurance financially and better support morally.[3][4]

References[edit]

  1. "Why Kutral stopped swimming?".
  2. "12-year-old Kutraleeshwaran swims across Palk Strait in 16 hours".
  3. Ramanujam, Srinivasa (30 August 2021). "Why Kutraleeshwaran gave up swimming, and how he's giving back now". The Hindu.
  4. "Kutraleeswaran Speech | இதுதான் சரியான தருணம்.. உதயநிதி முன்னிலையில் குற்றாலீஸ்வரன் பேச்சு". 30 August 2021.

External links[edit]

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