Hyderabad: Indian swimmer Virdhawal Khade has resigned from his post as Tehsildar in the Government of Maharashtra to focus on working as a swimming coach and shaping the future of the upcoming athletes in the sport.
Before resigning, Khade, who hails from Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, was working as Tehsildar in Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, Borivali, Mumbai.
Virdhawal worked in the capacity of Tehsildar since 2012 while he also continued his career in swimming. However, he stepped down from the role on Thursday making it public on X formerly known as Twitter.
Reflecting on his decision to do so, Virdhawal told ETV Bharat that he aims to develop young players in the future in the sport of swimming and help them clinch some medals in important events.
"I have been a swimmer as well as a government employee for the last 11 years. I realised during that period if you have to excel in one field you have to show 100 per cent dedication towards it. When you are working in two fields simultaneously, it gets difficult to excel in one of them," added 32-year-old Virdhawal Khade.
"Also, I want to give 100 per cent while coaching my students and it would have been difficult while working in two different disciplines. If my coaches would have worked this way, you wouldn't have seen me progress so much in the sport. They always showed full dedication and commitment. I am looking forward to helping budding swimmers to improve their game and give the state (Maharashtra) some medal-winning athletes,” he added.
Reflecting on the time when he used to work in a government office as well as pursue his swimming career, Khade revealed that it affected his training time. Also, he revealed that the offices don’t allow sportspersons to go on leave to prepare for an event. He revealed that he was on unpaid leave while gearing up for the Asian Games played last year.
"For the Asian Games last year, I was on unpaid leave for six to seven months. It was a big setback for me. It feels awkward that you have to ask (for) money from your parents for training at this age. You tend to compromise due to that. She is working as a deputy collector in Pune. Some policy changes need to be done in swimming,” he added
He also opined that the sport has changed a lot since the time he kicked off his career in swimming. "The sport has changed a lot. New academies have been established. The number of academies in the country has increased. Glenmark and JSW are heavily involved in the sport these days. They have started new academies. However, unfortunately, Maharashtra has lagged in all of this. We used to be in the top three or four in the medal tally at the national level. Mostly, top-level coaches and facilities are out of the state and that's why they (the other states) are doing better than our state,” Khade concluded.
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