News > Google Doodle honours Arati Saha — the first Asian woman to cross the English Channel

Google Doodle honours Arati Saha — the first Asian woman to cross the English Channel

Google Doodle is celebrating Arati Saha’s 80th birthday today. She was the youngest Indian Team member to participate in the 1952 Summer Olympics. She crossed the English Channel when she was 19 and became the first Asian woman to do so.

She swam 42 miles from Cape Gris Nez, France to Sandgate, England back in the late 1950s. Saha started learning swimming on the banks of Hooghly River at the tender age of four.