Chandigarh\/Manali,
\nA day after winning a historic bronze medal at the Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup in Turkey, Manali\u2019s Aanchal Thakur was basking in glory today.<\/p>\n
The feat of the 21-year-old was noticed by the Indian government, with the Prime Minister and Sports Minister congratulating her, and Aanchal was overwhelmed with the accolades.<\/p>\n
Aanchal had given India its first medal ever in skiing at an international event with her bronze in Turkey.<\/p>\n
The young skier seemed as much surprised as elated with her path-breaking feat. \u201cFinally something unexpected happened. My first ever international medal…,\u201d she wrote on her Twitter handle after winning the medal.<\/p>\n
Back home in Manali, her father Roshan Thakur, too, found it tough to believe. \u201cWhen she showed me the medal, I thought it was a souvenir that every participant gets at the end of the tournament,\u201d said Thakur. \u201cWe never thought about winning a medal, for us it was all about participation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Generally, self-depreciation isn\u2019t the overriding sentiment in the wake of a historic feat, neither from an athlete nor from his\/her parents. Thakur, however, showed no hesitation in admitting that they weren\u2019t expecting a medal. \u201cYou won\u2019t think of a medal if you know and understand the facilities and support our competitors get, and what our skiers get. There\u2019s no comparison at all!,\u201d said Thakur, who\u2019s the secretary of the Winter Games Federation of India.<\/p>\n
Yet, against all odds, his daughter has managed to achieve the \u201cunexpected\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge achievement, both on a personal level and for the sport. Until now, there had been little recognition and support, but maybe things would change now. Even the prime minister has lauded the feat, so we hope the sport will start getting its due,\u201d said Thakur.<\/p>\n
Aanchal, too, hopes her medal will ring in better days for the sport and its practitioners. \u201cI hope we will now be treated at par with athletes of popular sports. Until now, there had been no support from the government,\u201d said Aanchal. \u201cI just want to say that we, too, are fighting, working hard day in and day for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given that the Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held next month in South Korea, the medal couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. However, despite the medal, Aanchal hasn\u2019t made the cut for the Olympics yet. And given that January 21 is the cut-off qualification date, her chances don\u2019t look too bright at the moment. \u201cThe qualification criterion is getting tougher with every Games. Anyway, thinking of an Olympics medal is outlandish at the moment. But yes, Aanchal has shown that we could be really competitive if we get the support and facilities our top competitors are getting,\u201d said Thakur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chandigarh\/Manali, A day after winning a historic bronze medal at the Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup in Turkey, Manali\u2019s Aanchal Thakur was basking in glory today. The feat of the 21-year-old was noticed by the Indian government, with the Prime Minister and Sports Minister congratulating her, and Aanchal was overwhelmed with the accolades. Aanchal had given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18234,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18232\/revisions\/18234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}