11-year-old Sahana Bhattal and her sister Meher, 9, couldn’t contain their excitement at the La Defence Arena. They were jumping with joy, shouting. This is the Paris venue that pop-star Taylor Swift performed at as part of her Eras Tour. The girls might be Swifties but they are also swimmers and Katie Ledecky fans and they are going off the handle like swimmers stream out of the dressing room at the La Defence Arena, which has been repurposed as the venue for all swimming events for Paris 2024.

Dressed in Team USA tees and accompanied by father Tej Bhattal, 45, an investment banker, and mother Sumedha Bhattal, 42, a former strategy consultant, the sisters are rooting for Katie Ledecky and other American swimmers as the family lives in Chicago.

“The girls swim competitively at the club level in Chicago and they wanted to see all this in person. Sahana also plays volleyball, so we are going for women’s volleyball games too. All four of us go to the stadiums in our Team USA tees and the girls are hoping to get some autographs from Ledecky,” said Sumedha.

Despite their children’s allegiance firmly with Team USA, the parents remain true to their Ludhiana and Chandigarh roots and supported Team India during their recent ICC T20 World Cup triumph in the USA and the West Indies. Tej, who used to compete in athletics while in college in India, is also watching athletics events. While he backed Noah Lyles in the 100m final, which he won by a whisker, ahead of Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, he will bleed blue when Neeraj Chopra steps out to defend his Olympic gold in javelin later this week.

Tej was joined by his father, a retired armyman, who will be cheering on Chopra together. “The original plan was to go to the Tokyo Olympics to celebrate dad’s 70th birthday. Covid ruined that. Now, we are here in Paris celebrating his 75th at the Olympics hopefully with another gold for Chopra,” she said, adding that they had made a proper vacation out of this trip with a 5-day stopover in Norway on their way to Paris.

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