Swapna Barman

Career Barman was born in Ghospara village near Jalpaiguri, West Bengal in 1996 in a poor Rajbongshi family. She is unusual in having six toes on each foot. In 2016, she won a scholarship of in recognition of the success she had at athletics. She trains at the Sports Authority of India campus at Kolkata.

In 2016, she was supported by the GoSports Foundation through the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme. Barman collapsed during the final event of the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships – Women's heptathlon and she had gained enough points from the previous six events to take gold.

In 2020, she lost out on funding but said that she would continue to train at her home in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal.

She took gold in the heptathlon at the 2021 Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships and in 2022 she competed at the National Games in the heptathlon. She gained an unexpected gold when she broke the high jump games record with a height of 1.83m. She was also in first place in the javelin and the 100m hurdles. She won the gold for the heptathlon and hinted that she would have scored even higher if she had a sponsor for some support staff.

Achievements Asian Athletics Championships

Federation Cup

Asian Games

Rewards for winning the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games from the Government of West Bengal.

Political career On 27 February 2026, Barman joined the Trinamool Congress. In March 2026, she received the party ticket to contest from the Rajganj constituency in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, but lost to Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dinesh Sarkar.