AR Bhat
The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi sport event held once every four years for sports practiced in snow and ice. The original five Winter Olympic sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey and Nordic skiing. Later, disciplines such as Alpine skiing, luge, short track speed skating, free style skiing, skeleton and snow board skating were added to the Olympic programme. While European countries such as Norway and Germany still dominates the traditional Winter Olympic sports, countries such as Korea, Australia and Canada are finding success in the later events. Winter Olympics began in 1924, however, first time Indian delegation took part in the games was in 1964, till date only a handful of Indian Athletes have participated in the Games that too in limited events. For a country which is seventh largest in geographical area, second largest in population and home to the great Himalayas, this state is only due to neglect, lack of collective efforts, determination and funding. Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh is blessed with snow clad mountains, valleys and glaciers. They are also home to frozen rivers and lakes which have snow and ice most part of the year. These regions have the potential to be developed into winter sports hubs.
India in Winter Olympics Games. India’s debut in Winter Olympics was in 1964 at Innsbruck, Austria, where the sole athlete India fielded was Jermey Bujalouskii, a Polish born Indian athlete who competed in the men’s downhill alpine skiing but failed to finish the race. Since then India took part in ten editions of the Games, however, we had little success both in terms of participation as well as medals. Combination of funding woes, lack of support and facilities have contributed towards India lagging behind and not being able to match even the modest success rate in the summer version of the Games.
Why Kashmir Union Territories of J& K and Ladakh are ideal destinations which can be developed into Winter Sports because of its terrain and climate. Kashmir and Ladakh are blessed with snow clad mountains, valleys, frozen lakes, mountains with varying degree of slopes and temperature dipping down up to -300C amongst the higher reaches of Himalayas. These harsh conditions are however ideal for winter and adventure sports. Kashmir and Ladakh are home to winter sports destinations such as Gulmarg, Sonamarg and Leh where Gondolas, facilities for Heli-skiing etc are available. Government and military institutions such as IISM and HAWS provide training for limited disciplines of winter sports especially different forms of skiing. There are many budding private institutions and individuals with varying degree of proficiency in the valley. These attributes of the region can be exploited to further develop the area into a complete winter sports hub. The people of Kashmir and Ladakh are already acclimatised to the harsh winters and challenging terrain. Physiologically they have better chance to excel in the winter sports arena vis-a-vis the lowlanders. This was evident during the “KHELO INDIA WINTER GAMES”of 2021 wherein J&K bagged the first position with 26 gold, 29 silver & 21 bronze medals. Even the Indian Army came second with only eight gold medals.
The main hurdle in developing the Union Territories of Ladakh and J&K into winter sports hubs are prevalent internal security situation and terrorism. Even though limited infrastructure is available in Kashmir & Ladakh, most of them are for skiing. The other Winter Olympic disciplines require expensive temperature regulated indoor stadiums and specialist equipments &
machineries. The proximity of Line of control and lack of expert coaches for training are also areas of concerns.
Exploiting the inherent advantages of Kashmir & Ladakh and developing these regions into winter sports hubs will result in the economic development, creation of job opportunities and holistic development of the region. When the talents from Kashmir become the Indian flag bearers in an international arena such as Winter Olympics, it will become an identity attribute for the Kashmiri youth. To accomplish this road ahead is through systematic planning and resolute measures. Integrating the existing Government, military & private infrastructure, winter sports hubs need to be developed in Gulmarg and Leh. Under a planning committee formed by the Government, suitable locations for respective disciplines of Winter Olympics need to be identified and essential training facilities are required to be established. In order for Indian athletes to participate in all the disciplines of Winter Olympic Games, it is quintessential to identify and employ expert international coaches with ample experience to train them. The potential athletes from the region should be identified from a young age and adequate training needs to be imparted to them. These young talents can be sponsored through “KHELO INDIA” scheme and after the basic training, the athletes should be given specialist training under expert coaches based on their proficiency, skill set and interests. In order to popularise winter sports and attract the youth, initiatives like Khelo India Winter Games need to be promoted. More funds need to be allocated for developments of infrastructure, advertisements and attractive financial packages for the athletes. Popular celebrities and famous athletes can be appointed as brand ambassadors to endorse and promote winter sports.