Khushi Patel: Roller skating to glory!
Khushi Patel, a 14-year-old Std IX student of Mount Carmel High School, Ahmedabad, (Gujarat) will represent India at the World Roller Skating Championship to be held in France, this month. Khushi is the youngest and the only skater from India to participate in the Under-20 category in the above Championship. Presently (at the time of filing this report), Khushi is participating in the 18th Asian Roller Skating Championship being held in South Korea. In 2016, she created history, doing her school and India proud, by winning three gold medals, in the 17th Asian Roller Skating Championship held in China, in spite of the fact that it was her first international event.
Khushi started skating at the age of three, 10 years ago, along with another girl of her age. She recalls, “Soon enough I fell in love with skating, and I now practice extensively, every day, from 5.45 to 7.30 am, and from 4.00 to 8.00 pm.” This is in addition to the other exercises she does at home.
No wonder Khushi has won, over the past seven years, medal after medal in all the state and national level championships that she has participated in: 18 gold medals in state championships and six gold medals at national-level events. To crown it all, she also won three gold medals at the last Asian Roller Skating Championships (2016), held every second year. She humbly states, “I didn’t expect to win three gold medals at the Asian Championships in China, but the fact that there was no pressure on me helped.”
It is not easy for a young girl of 14 like Khushi, to balance her studies and tight practice and competition schedules, all the more as she is in Std IX this year, and Board (Std X) exams are not far away. But Khushi manages it pretty well by keeping aside some time daily (when she is not travelling for competitions) for her studies and going back to school very promptly once she returns home after the events. Khushi adds, “Moreover, my school has been very supportive of me all these years, and I am confident of doing well in my studies as well, at least till I pass out of school after Class XII.”
What surprises all who know her is that in spite of such a busy schedule, Khushi finds time to devote to healthy past-times like reading and writing; “I love to pen down my thoughts, and I do write poems and essays on different subjects. If I am having a bad time, I right about it, and that makes me feel better!”
Great sportspersons like M.S. Dhoni and P.V. Sindhu are her role models and inspiration. “Dhoni’s calmness inspires me; so does the never say die spirit of Sindhu! I see in Sindhu, an epitome of girl power,” says Khushi. With such great role models before her, surely Khushi has glorious days ahead.
THE TEENAGER TODAY looks forward to publishing, in the near future, some of Khushi’s poems and articles in the magazine, and also hopes to have her presence in one of the many events we plan to hold in the near future. We wish her all success in the World Championships in Paris, this month.