It has been a dream for every sportsperson to represent and win the medal for their Country at the highest level. It's not everyone's cup of tea to adopt and play ice skating - a less known sports for subcontinent country like India. Vishwaraj Jadeja, a 32-year-old skater from Ahmedabad - India is practising hard in the Netherlands thousands of miles from his home in India, just to win the medal for the country in the Winter Olympics. Here's a look at Vishwaraj's dream, forces behind moving to the Netherlands, achievements and hardships during practising in the cold country.
Vishwaraj started doing roller skating at the very young age with a view to winning an Olympic medal for India. Talking to SBS Gujarati Vishwaraj stated that when he found out about the exclusion of roller skating from the Summer Olympic Games, he was pretty disappointed and decided to switch to ice skating as it is one of the popular sports in the Winter Olympics Games.
Ice Skater Vishwaraj Jadeja Source: Vatsal Patel
Lack of facilities in India, Vishwaraj moved to the Netherlands
Vishwaraj told SBS, India has a lack of good infrastructure for ice skating, so I decided to shift to the country where ice skating is popular and can provide me good facilities to sharpen my ice skating skills. I made up my mind to move to the Netherlands, as this sport has got god-like status in the country. Ice skating to the Netherlands is what cricket is to India. Moving to the Netherlands was not easy for me as I was studying engineering in Ahmedabad but only to fulfil my passion, I decided to take an admission for higher study in the Netherlands.
Hardships in the Netherlands
While most of the Indians look at the Netherlands as a vacation destination, Vishwaraj entered the country with dreams of winning a medal for India in the Winter Games. According to Vishwaraj, it was hard for him to acclimatise in extremely cold conditions in the typical European weather. Moreover, stringency of funds forced him to work in restaurants and deliver newspapers early in the morning. When I participated in the world championship in Spain, one leading newspaper published an article about my search for the coach and then I met Wim Nieuwenhuizen - usually known as the 'Champion Maker'. Vishwaraj recalls his first meeting with Nieuwenhuizen, his dream coach. The coach said, "if you can travel to the Netherlands for your passion, then I am ready to coach you".
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Achievements in the sport
Vishwaraj has registered 66 national records for India, he has won lower division race in Europe and national gold medal in roller skating. He was honoured with Sardar Patel award in 2004-05 for his achievement in skating.
Practise schedule for summer and winter season
Vishwaraj stated that the training for long-track speed skating is divided into summer and winter training. In the summer, we work on raising the basic fitness, strength, conditioning and making the power to weight ratio of the body optimal. which would include the average of 50 KMS of cycling every day during the summer. It changes during the winter, where the morning training is strength and conditioning and the second training of the day is usually on the ice track, racing on most Saturdays and Sundays between October to March, within the 11 months period of the season, 1 month is the offseason.
Knee injury ruled Vishwaraj out of the 2018 Winter Games
Vishwaraj was practising hard to achieve his dream of participating in 2018 Winter Games but a series of crashes on cycling track and an ice rink during the summer training resulted in an injury to his left knee. It was very painful time for me, physically as well as mentally - said Vishwaraj.
Ice Skater Vishwaraj Jadeja Source: Facebook
What next?
Talking about his next target, Vishwaraj stated, currently he is focussing on his fitness. His first target is to be getting 100% fit for the Asian Championships and the Winter Asian Games. Vishwaraj was the only athlete who has participated in all the different races and registered his personal best times in 2017 Asian Winter Games held in Japan.
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