Shakya participated in more than 35 national and international games during her decade-long swimming career in which her success was experienced for the most part at a domestic level. Her most significant achievement was when she set the national record for winning nine gold medals in an single tournament in the 4th National Games. This achievement lifted Shakya to the top.
Bu things have changed and her fame is fading fast. For the past two years Shakya has failed to deliver results in the pool. She dropped out of the qualifying round for the Beijing Olympics held last year citing health problems. Similarly, in the 5th National Game concluded two months earlier, she participated only in the 50-meter freestyle where she won a bronze medal. Again, she blamed failing heath.
In those same 5th National Games, Shakya´s teammate Karishma Kari broke her decade-long record of winning 9 gold medals, surpassing her record to win a total of 12. Shakya confessed, "I could not play during the national games because my health was too bad on the opening day. If my health didn´t let me down, I am confident I could at least win four gold medals."
Whether Shakya can regain her previous fitness in swimming is a big question, but she is confident and guarantees she will remain in the field and start winning again once her health improves. She has even set her sights on giving a good performance in the upcoming SAF (South Asian) Games due to take place in January-February 2010 in Dhaka. Shakya said, "As far as my health favors me I will be playing for 2-3 year, so I am not talking about my retirement at this juncture, I just want to give 100 percent to the sport."
But she is also planning ahead and in the near future plans to undertake an 11-month training course in coaching at Bangalore or Patiala. "It is very necessary for me to be in swimming because swimming is my life. To leave swimming means to die," she said.
Shakya is not satisfied with the way her coaches teach her. Therefore, she wants to prove herself as a brilliant coach and produce excellent swimmers for the country.
But it´s a tremendous task for the woman once named the ´swimming queen´ to return to the pool as a serious, gold medal-winning swimmer. Failing health, age, and growing competition in the pool will be the main obstacles in the way of Shakya´s dream, but nothing is impossible for someone with strong will. Our best wishes to Nayana.
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