The 57.44m throw in Bhubaneswar last month did not quite match the 59.73m that Seema Kaliramna had produced two months earlier. Nor did she seem particularly bothered by it.The Bhubaneswar competition was the World Athletics Silver Level Continental Tour meet at Kalinga Stadium on August 22, her first competition after the Commonwealth Games bronze in Glasgow.In the women’s discus, Commonwealth Games champion Samantha Hall was in the field along with Thailand’s Subenrat Insaeng and Brazil’s Andressa de Morais. De Morais won with 58.66m, Hall threw 58.43m, Subenrat 58.33m, and Seema finished fourth with 57.44m.Her personal best had come at the National Inter-State Championships in June earlier this year, where she also crossed the Asian Games qualifying mark of 55.48m. A month later in Glasgow, she won Commonwealth Games bronze with 58.65m.Now, with the Asian Games approaching, the 27-year-old discus thrower is not putting a target distance on what comes next.“I just want to throw the discus as far as I can. Now, it can be 60, it can be 65, it can be 70 metres, sir. Now, whether I get the medal or not, that’s another story, sir. I just want to do my best, sir,” Seema told Timesofindia.com in an exclusive interaction ahead of the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, which begin on September 19.The 60m mark is still to come in competition, but Seema is in no hurry to force it, in fact, she laughs off the temptation to chase it too quickly.
Seema Kaliramna (Image credit: Special arrangement)
“It’s better if we progress slowly. If we progress completely, it gets a little messy.”Her coach and husband, Ravinder ‘Monu’ Kaliramna, has been working along the same lines. The plan was always to use the CWG as part of the build-up, with the Asian Games in mind.Seema’s own assessment after the 57.44m throw was similarly measured.“It is not that bad. According to the Asian Games, it is good.”
From 54-55m in training to 59.73m
That calmness took time to build. Seema was preparing for the World University Games after her marriage in 2019 and says she was throwing 54-55m in training. A knee injury and then COVID kept her away from competition. She continued training around the same distance but could not get the competitions she needed.Then came pregnancy and childbirth.Seema gave birth to her son Rudra in 2022. He is now four years old. She returned to competitive competition 11 months after his birth, but the period around pregnancy and childbirth had left her dealing with severe physical problems.After giving birth, Seema’s physical problems became severe. She has described how her shoulder and hip had become frozen during pregnancy and how the condition worsened after delivery. Doctors told her she had severe arthritis.“At that time, I was not able to walk up to 10 meters, and I was not able to pick up my child.”At one point, she wondered whether continuing to live like that was possible.“In such a condition, a person thinks that instead of living like this, it is better not to live.”She had not simply stopped throwing, but she had to work out whether her body could return to the sport at all. Ravinder’s answer was to start again, but according to her body.“My husband said that we will start the game again. We will take her according to her body, as and when the muscle develops, the arthritis will reduce.”It did.Seema returned to competition in 2024. Her competition best before motherhood had been 48.08m. She went to 57.19m in 2024, won the 2025 National Games, and then moved beyond 59m this season.Seema’s return to the throwing circle was not something she worked through on her own.Ravinder was there as her coach, but he was also the person beside her through pregnancy, the arthritis that followed and the long process of getting her body ready to compete again. The two have also been working towards the same Olympic goal. For Seema, that makes it difficult to separate the two roles.
Seema Kaliramna (Image credit: Special arrangement)
“When you have a goal, when you are living a dream… we are living the same dream, so there is not much difference between us.”
The support behind Seema’s comeback
Their sporting set-up has also been supported by the Inspire Institute of Sport, which has provided Seema with physiotherapy, massage, travel, accommodation and other support.“We don’t even have a government job, we don’t even have a private job, so from physio, to massage, to travelling, accommodation, everything is done by IIS. I have got full support from IIS,” Seema said.However, there was some movement on that front recently. At a Haryana government programme in Panchkula on August 26, Seema said she was approached about a junior coach’s position.For now, though, the discus remains the priority. So does Rudra, even when he is not at the stadium.
Rudra will watch from home again
Before the CWG, Seema had spoken about how difficult it was to leave her son behind. In Glasgow, she won bronze and then spoke about missing him. Before she left for the CWG, Seema knew what Rudra was hoping she would bring back – a medal; and she did.He will not be travelling with her to the Asian Games either.A medal will make the trip back home again, just as it did after the CWG. Seema hopes that, one day, Rudra will be the one travelling to competitions – and that she and Monu will be the ones going with him.
Seema Kaliramna and son Rudra (Image credit: Special arrangement)
“He cannot go with me now, but we will make him [raise him in a way] so that in the future he goes out and we go with him.”For now, Rudra will again watch from home, and Seema will go back into the circle, with a CWG bronze behind her, a 59.73m personal best beside her name and an Asian Games medal somewhere ahead.And she is already thinking beyond that. After winning at Glasgow, her first reaction was not about the distance or the podium. Instead, it was: “We did it.”Now she wants the Asian Games to be another step. “So, we will climb one more step towards the Olympics after winning a medal at the Asian Games.”
