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“I am a swimming champion! My favourite way of communicating is through emojis”

If you meet Arti Krishnamoorthy (36) from Chennai, you are likely to hear these words from her, spoken with supreme confidence: “I’m a champion.” And she would only be stating a fact. Arti, who has Down Syndrome (DS), has amassed more than 75 medals in swimming and other sports. We secretly hope at least some of the medical staff in the hospital where she was born would remember and feel ashamed for having told her mother Sandhya: “Do you want a child like this? She is a waste. Mentally retarded.”
 
It was an age when DS was barely recognised and even the medical fraternity was ignorant about neurodivergence. Sandhya recalls that her husband C.V. Krishnamoorthy, who was in the army, was posted in Mizoram at the time. When she shared what the doctors had told her, he too was equally crushed. It was only in 1991 after the family moved to Chennai that things started looking up when they encountered Dr Surekha Ramachandran, founder-president of the Down Syndrome Federation of India (DSFI). “She was a breeze of positivity,” Sandhya recalls. “She saw something in Arti that perhaps even we did not see. She had dedicated her life to children with disabilities and had travelled worldwide, so she brought us refreshing new perspectives.”
 
Arti was sporty as a child. She used to closely observe her older brother Vaidyanathan when he went cycling or played cricket or other sports with his friends, and be keen to imitate them. Sandhya remembers how Arti insisted on having her own ball and bat and Vaidyanathan’s friends would join her in the game – his friends were also her friends. She was naughty, too, sometimes sneaking into her brother’s room and scribbling on his books!
 
But unfortunately, books and studies were a considerable challenge for Arti who struggled to even speak. Those days there was no school that could accommodate someone like her. Arti was eight when DSFI, which ran summer camps to encourage the children’s holistic growth, introduced sports. Arti started her journey with the Special Olympics when she took part in the National Games in Chandigarh in 1998 and won her first gold medal in the 50m race. Hearing about a coach in the Aquatic Complex in Chennai who could help Arti develop as a swimmer, Sandhya started regularly taking 11-year-old Arti to the complex. At first, she was afraid to go near the pool but over a year she grew at ease in the water and started enjoying herself as she mastered all four swim strokes.
 
Now there was no stopping her. She won numerous medals at the State-level Masters Swimming Championships, and at the National Paralympics when representing Tamil Nadu. She went on to represent India in swimming at the Special Olympics: silver in 25m butterfly and bronze in 50m freestyle at the 2013 Asia Pacific Regional Games in Australia, and bronze in 25m butterfly at the 2019 World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. “She is never upset if she doesn’t win,” says Sandhya. “Happiness, for her, is being part of the tournament.”
 
Sandhya also says Arti learned about social interactions and daily routine from engaging in such sporting activities. She gained confidence and independence by going through the routine involved in swimming, from putting on the swim gear, to regular practice routines and the post-swim shower and change of clothes. It moulded her, and gave her life lessons no school at the time could have provided her with.
 
Arti continues to stay physically active. She does yoga daily, swims regularly, goes for music classes, and is learning the Tamil martial art Silambam as well. She has a thriving social life and constantly keeps all her friends informed on her whereabouts through her primary mode of communication: emojis. If she is out swimming, she sends her friends the swimming emoji along with medals and trophies. She asks her friends if they went to church or temple with a church or temple emoji and a question mark. Sandhya remarks, “I am both astonished and surprised as to how Arti picked up communicating through emojis. For example, if she travels in an auto, she would text you the auto emoji, if she is going to bed, it would be the emoji of a cot. People come and tell me that they themselves do not know how to find some of these emojis, and it gives me so much pride.”
 
“The world has changed from how it was 30 years ago,” Sandhya observes. “Our country has seen some improvements; however, the space that deals with intellectual disabilities (ID) still falls short. Why can’t those with ID be given employment according to their abilities? And since they need more medical care as they age, shouldn’t they be eligible for medical insurance? We also lack volunteer-based movements; for instance, no one has ever come to us and said, can we take Arti out for a day.” Meanwhile, Arti was part of the award-winning documentary “Indelible” about seven persons with DS, which helped raise awareness about the Special Olympics and DS. At home, she leaves no one in doubt as to who is the real boss in her family!