Yabuli, India, February 10, 2025: India fielded four athletes in the cross-country skiing men’s 10km event at the Asian Winter Games on Monday, with the focus entirely on individual performances.
“Let’s be realistic, we are not going to challenge athletes from Japan, Korea or China for medals. Our aim is to improve and set personal milestones. If we are able to reduce the gap on the medal winners in terms of timings, we will be happy,” noted Indian cross country team manager Rajeev Dhingra.
Shubam Parihar, Padma Namgyal, Ahmad Rameez Padder and Manjeet make up the Indian men’s cross country contingent. They don’t come anywhere near the leaderboard at the end of the 10-kilometre endurance test - around four minutes adrift of Japanese gold medalist Haruki Yamashita.
It was expected. India has never won a cross-country skiing medal - or, in fact, in any other ski discipline - at the Asian Winter Games.
The biggest obstacle is time. The winter season, when it snows in the mountains of India, lasts from January to February, and is too short a period according to Dhingra.
“For instance, cricket, which is the most popular sport, is played all year round. But in skiing we only have three months a year and this period is insufficient for training or developing the sport.”
The present squad’s preparations prior to these games were limited to a couple of weeks at home before another fortnight in Italy. “It is not really an ideal build-up. But we are making progress,” Dhingra said.
Winter sports have received support from the Indian government, whose initiative Khelo India is a programme aimed to promote sports at grassroots level across the country. It has been warmly welcomed by the winter sports community.
Just before the Harbin AWG, the first phase of Khelo India Winter Games was held in Ladakh from January 23-27. Ice hockey and ice skating were the two sports. Jammu and Kashmir, the other winter sporting venue in India, will host the second phase from February 22-25. Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, ski mountaineering and snowboarding will be contested.
“Khelo India is a fantastic initiative. It will help us identify young talent and also raise the awareness of winter sports across India,” says Dhingra.
First launched in 2020, the Khelo India Winter Games 2025 will witness 400 athletes from 19 states, Union Territories and institutions participate.
Looking ahead, Dhingra is hopeful that Indian athletes will be able to push for top-five places at the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Neom, Saudi Arabia.
“This is our ambitious target,” says Dhingra as he casts an envious eye at the streamlined facilities available in Yabuli.
“China has wonderful facilities here. Maybe we should look at coming here and training, instead of always heading towards Europe. It will be an option. Just look at the Chinese athletes’ performances, they are champions and we could learn from them,” Dhingra added.
Photo: OCA