Snow fell on the protected faces of Bhavani TN and 4 different skiers as they obtained prepared for the beginning of the Nordic 10km race within the Khelo India Winter Video games on the Gulmarg Golf Membership at Gulmarg on Saturday. Very quickly, the wind picked up. Undeterred, the athletes navigated their approach by means of the winding course, leaving a path on the huge swathe of white carpet, courtesy the heavy snowfall over the earlier 48 hours.
The blustery situations added to the problem of the cross-country skiers in following the flags and staying the course. Bhavani was up for it. She gained the race clocking 52 minutes, 22 seconds. It was helpful preparation for her every week earlier than the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia (Feb 21). Will probably be Bhavani’s first huge step in direction of qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“My coach as soon as advised me whether or not there’s snow blizzard or a observe filled with contemporary snow, you should be able to face something at the start line. We don’t come throughout such situations in India however as we speak was completely different. It was tough and chilly however expertise for me,” she mentioned.
Snow was removed from the place Bhavani, 27, grew up — the hockey-loving Coorg in Karnataka. She will’t cease raving concerning the hockey competition again dwelling, however within the final couple of years she has barely hung out with the household.
It was throughout her days within the Nationwide Cadet Corps (NCC) that she was launched to a mountaineering course and progressively took up snowboarding. Now, she travels throughout the globe to coach, from one snow peak to a different – Iceland, Norway, Italy – chasing her Olympic dream. In India, she trains at Gulmarg and Ladakh.
In December, she gained silver in 5km snowboarding on the Raiffeisen Langlauf Cup held in Italy, changing into the primary Indian lady to win a world medal in cross-country snowboarding. “I used to be working as a mountaineering and ski teacher however realised that If I needed to qualify for the Olympics, I would want to take a deep dive and prepare for one year. So, I left my job and now my solely goal is the 2026 Olympics.”
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Bhavani has been self-funding her coaching and sought help from the federal government to get her personal coach and physio. She is now trying to compete in 10 worldwide occasions in order that her greatest 5 scores could be counted for qualification to the 2026 Winter Olympics, or the Milano Cortina Video games as a result of Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo are the primary cities.
India’s six-time winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan considers her a brilliant prospect.
“Final yr I went to Norway however this time I couldn’t afford it. So, Shiva sir urged another and I went to Italy for a month. The Italian federation organised the whole lot,” mentioned Bhavani, whose father runs a espresso enterprise.
“You want a minimum of ₹50-60 lakh a yr. The Italy journey value ₹10 lakh. For Norway, I needed to spend double the quantity. It’s an costly sport. The world’s greatest athletes have their coaches, physio, technicians – a full staff.”
Bhavani travels on her personal and takes delight that she is studying quick. Throughout her coaching in Italy, she picked up the traditional method and completed fourth in a contest in Iceland.
“As a cross-country skier, I must study each traditional and skate types. The 2 types alternate in main worldwide occasions, together with Olympics. In Iceland I completed fourth within the dash traditional race, not too far behind European skiers.”