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Indian swimmer Vedaant Madhavan has verbally committed to swim at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2023. He is the son of famous Indian actor Ranganthan Madhavan.
I’m super excited and honoured to announce my verbal commitment to Virginia Tech. It has always been my dream college so I am absolutely thrilled to continue my academic and athletic career at Virginia Tech. I would like to thank my parents, coaches, teachers, teammates, friends, an especially my coaches for all of their support. Can’t wait to be a part of the family, Go Hokies!
Madhavan represented India at the World Junior Championships over the summer, where he finished 37th in the 100 free. He also swam on India’s 10th-place 800 free relay.
Madhavan is a rangy freestyle with talent in every distance from 50 through 1500. While he focused on the 100 and 200 freestyles at the World Junior Championships, he has so far been better at the longer freestyle distances.
Best Times, LCM (SCY Conversions):
- 50 free – 24.81 (21.63)
- 100 free – 52.12 (45.51)
- 200 free – 1:54.02 (1:39.83)
- 400 free – 4:04.25 (4:33.66)
- 800 free – 8:17.28 (9:17.17 – 1000y free)
- 1500 free – 15:57.86 (15:39.07 – 1650y free)
As the rise in performance of swimmers in India has risen, so too has interest in NCAA programs in recruiting swimmers from the world’s second most populous nation. That includes swimmers like Stanford senior Neel Roy.
Virginia Tech has another native of India on their roster – freshman Tanish George Matthew. He too attended high school in Dubai at the Indian High School Dubai (Madhavan went to the Universal American School).
The Madhavan family moved to Dubai two years ago, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, so that Vedaant could continue training while pools were closed in India. There, he trained with Hamilton Dubai Aquatics, a club that has produced a number of international caliber swimmers – including European Champion Velemir Stjepanovic.
His father has 3 million followers on Twitter. Among his acting credits is a supporting role in the 2009 movie 3 Idiots, which at the time was the highest-grossing movie in the history of Indian cinema.
Vedaant Madhavan joins a deep Virginia Tech class of 2023. Other names include Alex Zoldan, Daniil Pancerevas, and Brendan Whitfield.
Pancerevas is from Lithuania, making two of four announced swimmers in the class internationals. The team has seen a healthy dose of international recruiting under head coach Sergio Lopez. The current men’s team has three swimmers from his native Spain, as well as swimmers from Egypt and Hong Kong on the men’s team. That is not a big change from his predecessor Ned Skinner, though, where the men’s team had 6 internationals in his last season.
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