The Unseen Handshake: On Roller Skates And Skis, Indian Sports Finds New Future

In a week when cricket, that noisy sovereign of Indian sport, was busy with its own theatre... players refusing handshakes, commentators dissecting gestures, and fans frothing over symbolism... two sporting youngsters were busy making history. Not in stadiums filled with chants, but on icy slopes and smooth tracks. Not with bat and ball, but with skis and skates.

TN Bhavani and Anandkumar Velkumar have not just won medals. They may have made a nation, long obsessed with a few sports, pause and look at them with interest.

The Karnataka girl Bhavani won the bronze in the 5 km at the FIS cross-country skiing competition in Chile. This is India's first ever international FIS medal in the women’s category in cross-country skiing.

Tamil Nadu's Anandkumar Velkumar secured the country's first ever gold medal at the Speed Skating World Championships in China. The 22-year-old skater clinched the senior men’s 1000 m sprint title with a timing of 1:24.924 seconds, becoming the first Indian World Champion in speed skating.

The duo’s success tells us about many things. About the joy of movement. About the dignity of effort. About the poetry of persistence.

Bhavani, the girl who chased snow

Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda was born in Napoklu, a village in Karnataka’s Kodagu district, that obviously sees no snow and has no ski culture. But she was a girl with a stubborn streak and a love for mountains. Her first brush with altitude came not on skis, but as a National Cadet Corps member summiting Mt. Rudegera in 2014. A year later, she was at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, braving freezing winds and summiting Renok peak.

She didn’t ski because it was fashionable. She skied because it made her feel alive. It is a love that defies logical explanation. She works on her endurance at home by running every day, so much so that her physical activities puzzle her neighbours and friends at times. But their curious looks never stopped or deterred her.

In 2019, she earned an international instructor certificate in skiing from the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports in Pahalgam. By 2020, she was teaching others. And in 2024, she stunned the Khelo India Winter Games in Gulmarg, winning three golds in the 10 km Nordic ski, 1.6 km sprint, and 5 km sprint. And now this incredible medal in Chile.

Bhavani is not just a skier. She is a metaphor. For grit. For the idea that geography is not destiny and that a girl from the plains near the Cauvery can conquer slopes at 4,000 metres. She has shown that India’s winter sports story need not be written only in Kashmir or Himachal. She dreams of the Olympics. She knows India has never qualified for cross-country skiing. But she trains anyway. She waits for winter. She waits for snow. She waits for her moment.

Anandkumar, the boy who skated past boundaries

If Bhavani chased snow, Anandkumar Velkumar went after speed. Born in Tamil Nadu, a state known more for its cricketing fervour and chess champions, Anandkumar found his calling on wheels. Inline speed skating is not a sport you associate with India. It is dominated by Europeans, East Asians, and Latin Americans. But Anandkumar didn’t care. His older sister’s pastime became his passion.

In 2021, he won silver in the 15 km elimination at the Junior World Championships. It was India’s first medal at that level. In 2023, he bagged bronze in the 3000 m team relay at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. In 2025, he exploded.

At the World Games in Chengdu, he won bronze in the 1000 m sprint, India’s first medal in roller sports at the Games. Days later, he clinched bronze in the 500 m sprint and then gold in the 1000 m sprint at the Speed Skating World Championships in Beidaihe, China. He is now India’s first ever world champion in speed skating. His timing: 1:24.924 seconds. His impact: immeasurable.

Anandkumar’s rise is not just about medals. It is about breaking stereotypes. About showing that Indian athletes can excel in sports without legacy, without infrastructure, without fanfare. He trained on a badminton court because that was the only space available for skating in his neighbourhood (KK Nagar). He competed with borrowed gear. He endured the indifference of a system that didn’t know what to do with skaters.

But he kept skating. Past doubt. Past neglect. Past the finish line.

The handshake that matters

To skate at pace or to ski at speed is to embrace risk, as bones crack easier here. But what act is riskier than defying India’s sporting orthodoxy?

India’s sporting narrative has long been narrow. Cricket, chess, hockey, billiards, badminton, wrestling, boxing. The occasional tennis flourish. But winter sports? Roller skating? These were hobbies, not careers. Until now.

In that context, Bhavani and Anandkumar are not just athletes. They are trailblazers. They are the first lines in new chapters. Their success should now force federations to rethink funding. It must nudge schools to consider alternative sports. It ought to tell young athletes that they don’t have to choose between cricket and nothing.

And perhaps one day, when an Indian child straps on a pair of skis or roller skates and dreams of Olympic glory, it will not seem strange. It will seem natural. Because once upon a time, in the shadow of cricket, two lonely athletes refused to give up.

And so, while India debates cricketing courtesies, perhaps we should look at the larger handshake being offered here. It is the handshake of a country with sports it never owned. In Bhavani’s skis cutting snow, in Anandkumar’s wheels biting track, lies the handshake with history. A grip firm, daring, and full of hope.