Mohini Bharadwaj made news in the US for her efforts to secure an Olympic gymnastics berth. But Raj Bhavsar has done that too, with one handicap: Mohini has Russian genes, Bhavsar — the US vault champion — is all-Indian, a genetic pool that hasn’t produced too many well-known gymnasts. Bhavsar’s is the familiar American Dream success story with a twist; in another field, he could have been a Seattle techie (his brother Sujit works with Microsoft) or a New Jersey banker. As it is, he’s a step away from every gymnast’s greatest dream, and is top-ranked among seven vying for the two remaining slots on the US team. And when The Indian Express spoke to him today, Bhavsar (23) took time off his schedule in California to say one thing: ‘‘I would love to come to India and tell every young kid that nothing is impossible.’’ He’s already won his spurs, as a member of the US team that placed second in the World Championships in 2001 and 2003, and winner of the Vault event at last year’s US nationals. When the names are announced in mid-July, Bhavsar, a vault specialist, is expected to be one. For any Indian, it’s an unexplored arena. But India’s non-existent gymnastics record never crossed his mind when he dropped out of his pre-medical course to pursue gymnastics full-time at Ohio State University. It’s the top college for gymnastics, and already has two members on the US team. For his parents, the choice was clear, even though it bucked Gujarati tradition. ‘‘Very early the coaches told me that Raj was a natural gymnast’’, his mother Surekha told The Indian Express from Houston, where her husband Jyotindra is an engineer with ABB. The couple migrated, in that great wave of migration, in the early 1970s. Jyotindra was born and brought up in Vadodara and graduated from MS University; his wife, a Barodian living in Uganda, went to the US on a visitor’s visa to get married. Where did gymnastics come in, given that it’s not a sport Indians are naturally drawn to? Surekha says her husband’s passion for rowing had given him a strong upper body, which Raj had inherited. ‘‘It is all due to my husband and his sporting background,’’ she says, adding, ‘‘He was keen that his sons shouldn’t be typical Asian nerds but be good in sports too.’’ So young Raj was sent to a tennis camp, and a swimming pool. ‘‘But it was gymnastics which he loved the most,’’ says the father. Indians and gymnastics are not a familiar mix, so did Raj ever feel discriminated against — especially in an individual-based, highly competitive and subjective sport (competitors are marked by judges)? Surekha sums it up neatly: ‘‘When he was young there were times when I felt cheated, I had doubts whether he would ever reach the top. But when I saw that other American parents felt the same it was okay,’’ she says. And adds with a finality in her voice: ‘‘Today, with Raj in line for the Olympics, I can say that there hasn’t been any bias against him.’’
