Four-time Olympian Seema dedicates her Arjuna Award to Aryan Mann on his 20th birthday

Chandigarh: Three weeks ago, discus thrower Seema Antil Punia won her long-awaited Arjuna Award, over two decades after stepping onto the international arena.

But the award, which came after winning India’s first medal in the Junior World Athletics Championship, competing in four Olympics, winning four consecutive Commonwealth Games and two Asian Games medals, proved to be bittersweet for the 39-year-old.

For when the country’s second-highest sporting honour was conferred on her, Seema was grieving the loss of her sister like a friend's son not long ago.

On December 20, young Aryan Mann, a budding national-level shooter, would have turned 20 but lost the battle to a debilitating brain tumour on October 16.

His smiling face was still fresh in her memory, on his birthday, Seema dedicated her Arjuna Award to Aryan, whom she loved no less than she would her son.

“Aryan’s mother Madhu and I are close friends and she is like an elder sister to me. We grew up together and were always joined at the hip. Since his childhood, Aryan had been cheering me on in every outing. In the last seven-eight years, whenever my name didn’t figure in the Arjuna awardees list, he would tell me not to worry, as I will win it one day and every time, I would reply that when I do get the award, I will place the award trophy (a bronze statuette of Arjuna) on his study table,” says Seema, who is among the handful of Indian sportspersons who have competed in four or more Olympics.

“But unfortunately, when I was finally picked for the Arjuna Award in 2022, Aryan was no longer with us. I had always wished to take him along with me to Rashtrapati Bhavan to witness the award ceremony. But destiny had something else in store. Today, on his birthday, I dedicate my Arjuna Award to my little champion,” says the 2014 Asian Games gold medallist, who has also got Aryan’s name tattooed on her arm as a permanent tribute.

Born to athlete parents – father Amanendra Mann, a national-level swimmer and mother Madhu an international volleyball player – Aryan was a young prodigy.

Even his grandfather, the late NS Mann, was a sports academician and was associated with the Panjab University football team as a manager for more than three decades since the early ’80s.

Maintaining a strict balance between sports and academics, Aryan participated in the School National Shooting Championship in a 10m air pistol event in 2018 and also got 92.2% marks in his Class 10 board exams in the subsequent year.

He also played lawn tennis at an inter-school level and was a regular at the lawn tennis courts of Lake Club until two years ago, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and had to undergo traumatic neurosurgery that ended his shooting career before it began.

Though he underwent surgery, life was not the same as even his memory was affected. Two years later, on October 16, 2022, he breathed his last.

“Aryan’s untimely demise is a great jolt for his family and friends alike. He was raised in a sporting family and was immensely passionate about sports,” says Olympian Seema. 

“Whenever I used to meet him, he would always talk at length about discus throw and would ask about the technicalities involved in the event. He had a great knowledge not only about Indian sportspersons but also about international sporting stars,” adds Seema, who kept her promise to the little champion, returned to Chandigarh after the national sports award ceremony and placed her Arjuna Award trophy on Aryan’s table: “This was the only way I felt I could pay my tribute to him.”