Aanchal Thakur and her brother Himanshu on Sunday. Jasbir Malhi
BEING INDIA’S first athlete to win a medal in a International Ski Federation (FIS) event when she won the bronze medal in women’s Slalom race in the Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup in Turkey earlier this year, 21-year-old Himachal skier Aanchal Thakur knows that her medal is a stepping stone for Indian skiing. The youngster, who is from Burua village near Manali, took up the sport at the age of five years with wooden skis and the DAV College, Chandigarh student is hopeful of a skiing revolution in the country.
“I was five years old when I started skiing with wooden skis with my cousins at our village. My father Roshan Lal Thakur had introduced the sport in India 30 years ago and with India not having the infrastructure for training, we would train abroad. Sometimes I would feel homesick and cry. The medal in Turkey is the reward for all the hard work in the past decade. The conditions in Turkey were difficult apart from the fact that I suffered a hand injury before the event. But I wanted to continue and saw it as training for my future. Iss medal se meri aur medal jeetne ki hunger badhi hai (The medal has meant that I am hungry for more medals,” said Aanchal, who was in Chandigarh for a sports literature festival.
With the Indian skiers training only in places such as Gulmarg, Manali or Auli in Uttrakhand, for a period of two-three months in a year, Thakur started the sport on the insistence of her father Roshan Lal Thakur, who was also the secertary of now defunct Winter Games Federation of India. The youngster represented India in Slalom and Giant Slalom event in 2012 Winter World Youth Olympics and also took part in Asian Winter Games last year. Aanchal’s cousin Hira Lal and brother 24-year-old Himanshu Thakur also represented India in 2014 Winter Olympics and the youngster believes that the sport needs more government support.
“Most of the times, we would trek for more than two years near Solang valley in winters carrying our skis for a two-minute downhill race. In Europe and America, there are ski resorts with dedicated lifts for professional skiers and the athletes train for more than 6-7 months. The FIS gives Indian skiers to train for a month in Europe but for further training, we have to spend 400 dollars for a day for coaching. There are no international-level coaches in India. My father learnt coaching in Japan and would train us by seeing videos. When I won the medal, Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore congratulated me and I did not think that it would be that big. We need the government to create more infrastructure and coaching facilities in India,” said Aanchal.
Aanchal’s elder brother Himanshu Thakur has too represented India at the international level and competed in 2014 Sochi Olympics apart from competing in this year’s winter Olympics qualifiers. “India has got perhaps the best mountains in the world, the Himalayas. Yet, we have to go abroad to train. The short training stints in Europe does help but if we have to win medals regularly, we need to train for longer duration. In Europe, youngsters start training with plastic skies. The equipment costs about Rs 5-10 lakh here in India. Now, we have 20-25 skiers competing at the national level but things are changing with people like Shiva Keshavan sir and Aanchal winning medals at the world level,” said Himanshu.