Barely a month after her twin brother won the silver medal at the Emirates Swimming Competition 2023 in Dubai, it has now been the turn of Rachel Jasmina Dias (8) to excel in the pool, having won two silver medals at the adventure swim organised in Abu Dhabi last week.
Like her multi-talented twin Troy, Rachel is equally adept at various disciplines, having won accolades at academic and sporting events.
Rachel, a Year 3 student at Dubai Scholars, a British Curriculum school in Dubai, started swimming when she was 5 years old. After training for two years, she participated in various swimming competitions and won many medals.
Her best moment was receiving the silver medal (100-metre swim) and silver (200-metre swim and aquathlon) at the adventure swim competition organised by Abu Dhabi Sports Council in Al Ain on June 10.
Earlier this year, she took part in different apex competitions, the All Stars swimming competition, Swim Champions Academy inter-club competition, inter-academy competition by Dolphins Sports Academy and the Open Sea swim competition at La Mer.
OTHER SPORTS
Besides swimming, Rachel enjoys gymnastics, soccer, basketball, karate and lawn tennis.
“Besides being blessed with physical abilities in varied sports, Rachel also has a gift for training ― she has the physical stamina for training and she likes it,” said her father, Terrence Dias, a former cricket player in Goa and presently employed with Emirates Airlines.
“She also has certain other mental capabilities. She can handle winning and losing, both during practice sessions and in matches. She also wants to be a tennis player and make Goa proud. As parents, we wish her great success in sports.”
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Rachel is not just into sports, but has developed a passion for other activities like ballet, drama, reading and spelling bee.
“She is a very proficient reader and is very fond of books and will be soon launching an online reading programme that helps rural kids in Maharashtra, to improve their literacy skills of reading and comprehension. She also has a library in her room which is availed by children whose parents cannot afford to buy story books for kids,” said Rachel’s mum, Remy, a school leader in Dubai.
“Rachel is a voracious reader and is extremely good at spelling. This year, she participated in the Spelling Bee by ISB. She also won the story writing contest conducted by GEMA. Maths is her favourite subject and she has strong mental maths abilities.”
“Rachel is also artistic and creative. She is a part of Handicrafts UAE. When she grows big, she wants to be a fashion designer and design beautiful clothes for women. International fashion designer Verma D’Mello is her role model. She enjoys painting, making creative things like bracelets, cards, bookmarks, etc.”
Remy describes Rachel as an intelligent self-learner, who is very intrinsically self-motivated and strives for excellence in academics and sports.
“She is very fond of food and also enjoys learning about how various kinds of food is made.”
Rachel also won the Junior Duke Bronze Award earlier this year.“The Junior Duke Award gives learners an opportunity to extend their learning outside of the academic sphere. It allows them the opportunity to learn important life skills and to do so in a fun and safe home environment,” said Remy.
“Rachel loved working through the challenges on the Junior Duke Scheme. She completed Bronze Junior Duke Award and can’t wait to start on the Silver.”
“It has also been great to see her using other familiar adults to join in with some of the challenges and has really improved their communication skills.”
"The level of the challenges has been perfect, each level pushes kids a little further but still within their capabilities."
