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C. S. A. Swami
Christopher Sebastian Arul Swami (31 December 1913 – 22 October 1997), better known as C. S. A. Swami, was an Indian journalist and athlete.[1] He competed in the marathon at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[2] Aged 22 in 1936, he was the youngest participant for India at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games.[3] At the time of the Olympics, Swami had a personal best of 2 hours and 47 seconds in the marathon.[4] During the journey to Berlin, Swami caught paratyphoid in Malta. In Berlin, he was stretchered to the Olympic Village and then stayed in a hospital for three weeks. [5] The 100-pound Swami was described as the "smallest athlete in the games" by Lawson Robertson, the head coach of the American athletics team.[6] Despite being frail, Swami started the Olympic marathon. Halfway through the race, he became ill. He collapsed at the finish and was carried back to the hospital.[7] Swami had a time of 3:10:44.0 and he was 37th among the 42 runners who completed the course. A further 18 runners, including the defending champion Juan Carlos Zabala, did not complete the race.[8] Besides being a runner over several distances, Swami was a shooter, football coach and referee. He had a journalistic career in the Free Press Journal,Times of India and Indian Express. He joined Indian Express in 1947 and retired as the Chief Sports Editor in 1984.[7] References
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