The homemaker who started swimming at 38 and became a Ironman at 49

Priya Shah Khandelwal loved sports as a child, but growing up in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara in a traditional Marwari family, she was not encouraged to participate. She played basketball in school but received little support to pursue the game.

“As a child, I wasn’t good at studies, but I was naturally athletic. Seeing other children on the playground made me yearn to join in,” she says. Her family envisioned a conventional future for her: marriage, children, home, and family. At 24, she married into an equally conservative Vadodara-based Marwari joint family, where she wore sarees with her head covered and spent virtually her entire day in the kitchen. “My housewifely duties left me no time for anything else—not even a walk,” she recalls.

By sheer happenstance, she and her husband then moved out of the joint family setup. “I finally had the time to start walking to keep fit.” Learning that her friends went swimming at the local pool, she saw an opportunity to pursue sports and grabbed it. At 38, she learned to swim. She took to the sport naturally and, in her very first year, participated in the district-level Khel Mahakumbh—a large-scale sports competition in India designed to encourage mass participation in sports—held in Vadodara, even winning a medal in all four swimming styles.

“Every achievement spurred me on to do more. Even in a relatively small city like Vadodara, there were women participating in marathons and triathlons. I wanted to be one of them.” Her husband did not discourage her but had two reservations: she should give their only child adequate attention and not travel outside Vadodara. She agreed and began training.

In 2019, she earned the second spot in her first triathlon at Vadodara. Her wins slowly changed her conservative family’s attitude. Seeing her name and photo in local newspapers, they took pride in her achievements.

She began dreaming of the biggest race of them all: the Ironman. Training was expensive; her cycle alone cost ₹3.5 lakh. Uncomfortable asking her husband to bear the expenses, she managed one of her family’s furnishing-business showrooms, using her salary to fund her training.

In 2020, she hit a big setback: her only child became clinically depressed. “He required full-time care, but I trained in the early morning, after he fell asleep following a sleepless night. Training kept me sane,” she says. “Today, he is much better but still requires supervision. I reserve a couple of morning hours for myself, come what may. Only if you put yourself first can you take care of others.”

Life has a way of disrupting her plans, but she adapts. In August 2022, she registered for the Goa half marathon. Days before the race, her father passed away, and she transferred her registration to the following year. “The first few months were very tough as I was grieving. But after about four months, I resumed training.” She completed the Goa half marathon and was placed third in her age group (45–50).

In January 2025, she registered for Ironman in Busselton, Australia. The following month, she completed the Vadodara Marathon in 4 hours and 54 minutes, becoming the city’s second-fastest woman at 48. That same day, she learned that she had breast cancer. “Even as I received this devastating news, the foremost thought in my mind was, ‘I have to continue training!’”’