Prof. V. K. Dabas (Retd.)

Prof. V. K. Dabas (Retd.)

Prof. Virender Kumar Dabas was born and brought up in a village in North-West Delhi. After doing his schooling from there he joined LNCPE, Gwalior and did his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in 1975 and 1977 respectively followed by Diploma in Swimming Coaching from NSNIS, Patiala in 1978. Soon after he joined LNCPE in July 1978 as Swimming Coach. While at LNCPE, he completed his Ph.D. From 1989 to 1991, he was deputed to Germany for two and a half years by the Govt. of India to do Master of Sports with specialization in Science of Training and Coaching. 

He also did several Value Addition small duration courses like in Diving and Waterpolo Officiating, Olympic Studies, Sports Medicine, Sports Event Management, Para Swimming Classification and Movement Therapy etc. He also did higher specialization in Athletics Training and Coaching.

As a swimmer, he played at National level and also captained Jiwaji University Swimming and Water Polo Teams in Inter University Competitions.

While in service at LNIPE, Prof. Dabas headed Department of Sports Coaching, Department of Sports Management and Journalism and the Department of Physical Education Pedagogy. He guided more than 70 Masters and 18 Ph. D. scholars in their research work and wrote several papers in National and International Journals. He retired on superannuation from LNIPE services in October 2015 at the age of 62 years.

During his service at LNIPE, Prof. Dabas started Aqua Therapy Programme in 1996 for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities, accidental injuries and frozen joints. Several hundred such people have been benefitted not only physically, rather mentally, socially and also economically from his programmes.

Prof. Dabas is the pioneer of Paralympic Swimming in the country which he started in 1996. In the year 2000, he founded Para Swimming Federation of India and since then he has been regularly conducting National Para Swimming Championships. He is the Chief Coach of Indian Para Swimming Teams since 2005. Because of his this initiative, the Indian Para Swimmers have won more than 250 International Medals, including at World Championship, Common Wealth Games, Asian Para Games, Youth Asian Para Games and at several International Championships. Last year 4 of his Para Swimmers crossed English Channel and this year Catalina Channel in Relay setting Asian Records.

Three swimmers trained by him have been decorated with Arjuna Awards and one with Padma Shree by the Govt. of India. More than 50 Para Swimmers have been bestowed with highest Sports Achievement Awards in different States across India. In Madhya Pradesh alone, 8 of his swimmers have been bestowed with Vikram Awards along with Govt. Jobs.

After retirement Prof. Dabas is fully devoted to Para Sports. At the moment is functioning as Chairman, Para Swimming with Paralympic Committee of India. He is also the C.E.O. of Madhya Pradesh Para Sports Association. Due to his continued efforts towards the rights of Para Sports persons, he could convince the MP State Government which recently announced the Policy on Para Sports in the State including the Cash Awards for Medal Winners at par with able-body Sports persons.

Being equally qualified in Athletics, Prof. Dabas is instrumental in the planning of rehabilitation, recovery, conditioning and training of Mr. Ajeet Singh Yadav, the LNIPE Alumnus and Ph. D. Scholar, who last year lost his one arm in an unfortunate train accident. Mr. Ajeet Singh won Gold Medal in World Grand Prix Championship, held in China in May 2019 and is ranked 4th in the World at the moment. He will participate in the World Championship at Dubai next month.