Fighting against the odds

A few days back, Indian cricketing stars Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant, and Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh were among the many who shared a campaign video by Adidas that spoke about the journey of a young Indian figure skater (ice skater) on Twitter.

The video, which was to support the youngster and raise funds for him, through the crowd-funding platform, Milaap, to help him realise his dream of participating in 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, soon became a hot topic on social media. In fact, for a lot of people, it came as a surprise that a sport like figure skating was even pursued by an Indian!

This led to 18-year-old Nishchay Luthra, a nine-time national gold medalist and a four-time international medalist, becoming a known face, in a matter of a short time.

The Delhi boy is now undergoing intense training in the US, to be able to compete in the only remaining qualification event (for the next year’s Winter Olympics), which is set to be organised in Melbourne in a few months’ time.

We got in touch with Nishchay, who is currently in Florida, for an interview, and the youngster opened up about his career, his frustration about the lack of support from the government, and the challenges he faced.

“I have always been good in sports since my childhood — I was pursuing basketball, football and athletics. I have always been competitive and when I used to see kids in my school speed skate, I was intrigued. Though I was initially bad at it, I motivated myself and started getting better and better,” Nishchay starts the conversation.

He adds, “But figure skating was not in the picture even then. It all started when my coach, took us to a camp in Shimla around 2012/13, where I saw figure-skating live for the first time — I found it instantly attractive and was determined to make it big in this.”

But with the sport not being popular in the country and with the lack of  infrastructure, how did he hone his skills? He says, “Of course, it was difficult and at that time, as there were not even many ice rinks. But winning my first junior national medal gave me a lot of confidence. I used to train and educate myself through YouTube videos. And it was in 2013, that the first ice rink arena opened in Gurugram. It was pretty expensive; when I told my parents about it, they felt the place was too far for me and also not affordable. So whenever I wished to practice there, I would start saving all my pocket money. I also saved it so that I could watch YouTube videos (about figure skating) in internet cafes!”

Though he was doing very well at the national level, he had a reality check when he first trained in the US — “I went there with the money (`5 lakh) I received from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)  for six months. I realised there that my competitors had at least six more years of training experience than I had and were way ahead in every aspect — it was like a wakeup call for me. But that was an enriching experience.” peaking about the lack of support from the government, he states, “You always see them (the government) giving rewards ranging in lakhs and crores to athletes after they win in Olympics or similar events; but I don’t see any point in that. Why can’t they be a part of our journey rather than supporting us after winning?”

Nonetheless, Nishchay is happy with the response he has been able to garner through the campaign video made by Adidas. “I’m overwhelmed with the attention I’ve been getting and it’s really great that other sports personalities have come in support to help raise funds to achieve my dream. But honestly, I’m not after fame at this point of time — I would prefer to earn it through the medals I win for the country,” he quips.

Sharing with us about his upcoming tournaments and plans, he says, “Even now, in Florida, I am not training as much compared to others because of the financial difficulties. I had an injury a few weeks back and I’m recovering now. Based on how soon I get back in shape and after getting an idea of how my training is progressing, I’m planning to participate in the Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating in two events — at Austria and Poland. And eventually, I would like to participate at Melbourne Trophy, which is the last qualification tournament left for me to be eligible to participate in 2018 Winter Olympics.”

On a concluding note, the 18-year-old turns emotional and states, “Sometimes, I feel like I’m not being a good son to my parents — they’ve done everything they possibly could to help me pursue my passion. Whenever I feel low, it is only my utmost love for figure skating that keeps me going.”