Gulmarg (Jammu & Kashmir), Feb 25 (NationPress) In a nation where snow is a common occurrence, Bhavani Thekkeda Nanjunda had to experience her first winter through borrowed moments. She spent her early years amidst the aromatic coffee hills of Kodagu, Karnataka, where the soil is a vibrant red, the mornings are shrouded in mist, and snow is merely a visual delight on screens.

At age 23, Bhavani first felt the icy bite on her cheeks, discovering that silence has a unique sound when enveloped in white. On Tuesday, at the Khelo India Winter Games 2026 held in Gulmarg, towering at 8700 feet, the 30-year-old daughter of a coffee farmer ascended to the title of sprint queen.

She clinched gold in the Nordic women’s 1.5 km sprint at the snow-draped Gulmarg Golf Course, complementing her prior bronze medals earned in the 15-km and 10-km relays during this season.

Crossing the finish line on Tuesday, with burning lungs and skis etching their final paths into the Gulmarg snow, Bhavani’s achievement was not just a win, but a triumph over geography, self-doubt, and fate.

She gazed at the mountains above, then down at the snow beneath her feet.

“This victory is dedicated to my parents,” Bhavani expressed. “Although I compete in winter sports, my mother and father have never witnessed snow. I aspire for them to visit Gulmarg, experience the snow, and witness me claiming gold.”

Back in her hometown, her father nurtures coffee plants, yet it is he who cultivated an even rarer commodity: faith. When winter sports seemed an unattainable dream for a girl from the southern region, he supported Bhavani’s pursuit. Lacking snow, local tracks, or a culture rooted in cross-country skiing, she had only a dream and an unwavering resolve.

Bhavani is already a trailblazer. She made history as the first Indian woman to secure a medal at a Federation Internationale de Ski et de Snowboard (FIS)-sanctioned cross-country skiing event, earning a bronze in the 5-km interval start free race at the 2025 FIS South America Cup in Chile. She has represented India in the 2023 and 2025 Nordic World Championships and has participated in all six iterations of the Khelo India Winter Games.

However, none of her achievements erase her extraordinary beginnings. Bhavani embarked on her journey as a mountaineer in 2014, became a certified ski instructor, and learned to navigate terrains she had only dreamed of as a child. Every advancement required overcoming financial hurdles, insufficient infrastructure, and the sheer challenge of distance. In Karnataka, ski trails, frosty mornings, and childhood memories of snow are non-existent.

“I hadn’t even seen snow until I was 23,” Bhavani noted. “If I could thrive despite starting the sport late, just think about what someone beginning early could achieve with adequate training, coaching, and facilities.”

In Gulmarg, she discovered mentors and mountains ready to share their wisdom. She acknowledges organizations like the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS), the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering (IISM), and the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports (JIM & WS) for welcoming athletes from places where winter is merely a term in a textbook.

Now, she seeks to open more doors and highlights the Jammu and Kashmir government’s initiative to train 500 youth from across India each year, encouraging aspiring athletes, particularly those from unexpected backgrounds, to rise to the occasion.

“There is a growing interest in winter sports,” Bhavani states. “The snow is calling from farther south than ever before.”

Bhavani also expresses gratitude towards the Reliance Foundation, which sponsors six girls from various states, including one each from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and two from Karnataka, her home state.

Long before she celebrated victory in Gulmarg, she was simply a girl from Kodagu, motivated by the mountains she witnessed in the Bollywood film ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’.

Film offered her a glimpse of the highlands, while life compelled her to scale them.

Looking ahead, she aims for the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Almaty, Kazakhstan. A grander stage, sharper cold, and heightened stakes await. Yet, for now, the image that resonates isn’t the gold medal she earned, but that of a coffee farmer and his wife, somewhere in the south, who have yet to experience snow, nurturing a daughter who has learned to conquer it.

In Gulmarg’s serene whiteness, Bhavani Thekkeda Nanjunda achieved more than just a victory. She demonstrated that oftentimes, the most arduous journey in winter sports is not merely crossing 1.5 kilometers of snow, but rather the transition from a sun-soaked plantation in Karnataka to the pinnacle of success in the snowy terrains of Kashmir.