Masudur Rahman Baidya

Masudur Rahman Baidya (Bengali: মাসুদুর রহমান বৈদ্য ) (1968 – 26 April 2015) was an Indian swimmer who was the world’s first physically handicapped swimmer to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Masudur Rehman Baidya was born in 1968 at Ballabhpur, North 24 Parganas in West Bengal in a Bengali poor family. His father was an imam of a local mosque. At the age of ten, young Masudur lost both his legs in a train mishap. In the year, 1989, at a swimming event organized by the Artificial Limb Centre at Pune, Masudur came first in sixteen out of seventeen competitions. In spite of his physical disabilities, he came fifth on two other events after this. On the first occasion, he swam from Panihati to Ahiritola in the heart of the Ganges river, flowing through Kolkata; and came fifth. He also stood fifth in an eighty-one kilometers long swimming competition organized in the district of Murshidabad in West Bengal. In 1997, he became the first physically handicapped Asian swimmer to successfully cross the English channel. Followed by this, in the year 2001, he became the world’s first physically handicapped swimmer to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar. He achieved this feat; by swimming from the Tarifa islands in Spain to shores of Morocco- a total distance of twenty two kilometers- in just about four hours and twenty minutes. In his later life, Masudur was diagnosed with anemia and owing to his limbs becoming increasingly crippled; he died on 26 April 2015 at a hospital in Kolkata, aged 46. Handicap swimmer Masudur Rahman Baidya a double amputee below the knee who won the English Channel, today found a devotee in none other than Indian sporting icon cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian icon had visited him in December last year while inaugurating Rabindra Swimming Pool and Anushilan Kendra at Lalkuti in Rajarhat. Saluting Masudur’s feats, Tendulkar had said: “They are the real heroes and their life is like an inspiration to all of us” and he was seen inquiring about Baidya’s achievements of being the only man with amputated legs to cross the English Channel and Strait of Gibraltar. Masudur’s story is more impressive as he showed amazing dedication and perseverance to pursue swimming after being run over by a goods train at an age of ten. He amazed everybody with his strong determination and grit. His body would bend downward from below the waist in the water but he did not give up till he could swim. “It is absolutely possible for persons with physical disabilities to do things better than normal people. But you have to be dedicated to your cause,” Masudur had said.