Madhavan's son steps out of dad's shadow at Asian Games

KUALA LUMPUR – Indian actor R. Madhavan, accustomed to being in the spotlight, finds his son Vedaant taking center stage at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. The 21-year-old swimmer made his Games debut for India in Tokyo, fulfilling an ambition he shared with his followers beforehand. Vedaant expressed his gratitude to family, friends, and coaches for their support on Instagram, detailing the two events he aimed to compete in: the men's 4x200m freestyle relay on September 21 and the 200m freestyle on September 23.

Vedaant's first event ended in a narrow miss – his relay team clocked 7 minutes 24.32 seconds and finished ninth in the heats, missing the final by just 0.22 seconds. He later shared an updated Instagram Story, stating that while he missed the finals by 0.2 seconds, he had still performed the best among Indian swimmers in the 200m freestyle heats, finishing 13th overall.

Despite his father's fame drawing attention to his debut, Vedaant has been candid about his goals in swimming. In an interview with Indian news agency PTI, he emphasized that if a swimmer performs well, they will be in the spotlight; if not, their absence will be noted regardless of their background. Before the Games, Vedaant told PTI that he wanted to do good for himself and his country as a swimmer.

Madhavan, 56, confirmed his son's dedication to swimming, revealing that Vedaant chose the sport himself and began pursuing it seriously at age 12, stating that the discipline was something built from within rather than imposed upon him.