2022-April-22

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Lessons From an Indian Diving Champion

BY KRYSTAL CHENG · GLOBAL EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS · UNITED STATES

3 MINUTE READ · 5 MINUTE LISTEN

Nammi poses with a trophy at the People’s Education Society Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, India.

It’s the 2008 Junior National Aquatic Championship in Kolkata.

Nammi Divya Theja is at the tip of the diving board, ready to execute the perfect dive.

After seven years in the sport, she’s all too familiar with her routine: Toes pointed, feet together, takeoff.

But today is different. Nammi is sick. She can barely walk straight, let alone graciously leap from a three-meter diving board and somersault in the air.

She knows this may possibly be the worst of her diving career.

Yet, she isn’t ready to give up.

After years of practicing for this very moment, she wants to give it her very best.

She takes a deep breath.

With her toes pointed and feet together, she takes off.

Nammi started diving when she was seven years old.

Her father, a diving instructor for the Indian army, was her coach.

“A lot of athletes are gifted with special physical characteristics that make them ‘perfect’ for their sports. But I wasn’t one of those people,” the Vizag native laughs.

“I practiced three to four hours every day. I fell flat. I fell on my face. My skin became all red,” Nammi explains. “I didn’t have the ‘perfect’ body for diving. I knew that. But I also knew that my mental strength could take me far.”

It’s true. She credits this focus as the reason why she’s taken home countless medals and several Best Diver awards from state and national competitions.

Nammi has also competed at international competitions in Japan and Russia.

Winning at work

In 2016, Nammi graduated from the People's Education Society Institute of Technology (formerly affiliated with Visvesvaraya Technology University in Belagavi, Karantaka) with a bachelor's in computer science. She was then offered an internship and later a full-time job at Cisco.

Once a competitor at the National Aquatic Championship, Nammi was later an official and an announcer in 2021. She was also an official and a judge at the State Aquatic Championship.

As a software engineer and project manager on the Digital Enterprise Solutions Lifecycle team, today she often relies on the mental strength she learned from diving.

“When you perform a dive, it always looks easy. But behind the scenes, there are a lot of fails and falls,” remembers Nammi. “I even needed to have my shoulder operated on once. I always told myself to keep going because I was determined to win.”

“The same goes for my work at Cisco. Even when my projects become challenging, I don’t give up. I know that I can keep going, so I do,” she adds.

It’s this mental strength Nammi hopes to share with young women across India.

She is currently an active volunteer and advisor for Empower Ananya, a nonprofit organization that helps young women from rural and economically challenged areas gain employability skills.

She has onboarded Empower Ananya onto Bright Funds and formed a team of volunteers to help give soft skills training to women across the country.

“I want to coach these young women to believe in themselves,” Nammi says.

“Even if they’re from rural areas. Even if they don’t have exposure to the corporate world,” she adds. “Even if they weren’t set up with the ‘perfect’ conditions for success. I want them to know that they are strong enough to do what they set their minds to.”

Back to the 2008 Junior National Aquatic Championship.

Despite feeling ill and the potential terrible diving day ahead, Nammi was determined to give it her all. With her toes pointed and feet together, she took off.

That day, Nammi went on to win gold and break the national record — one of her best personal records, too.