Bhubaneswar: Like many students of her age, Odisha girl Anahita Mishra is passionate about sport. But unlike most 12-year-olds, Anahita has chosen an uncommon game – roller skating.
It was at the age of 3 that she got attracted to skating and started wearing roller shoes (shoes with wheels). Seeing her seriousness, her parents — Soumyanwesh Mishra and Sunanda Sanganeria from Cuttack – got a coach for Anahita when she turned 7.
There’s been no looking back since then, and it’s been a steady upward roll on skates for Anahita.
Having already participated in national and international championships, Anahita is all set to compete in the 19th Asian Roller Skating Championships at Qinhuangdao City in China’s Hebei Province.
She is the only girl from Odisha to be selected in the Indian team for the Asian Championships, to be held from October 18 to 28.
Anahita, who studies in Manav Rachna International School, Noida, was happy to watch roller skating contribute to India’s first-ever 100-plus medal haul at a single edition of the Asian Games.
The Indian men’s and women’s teams won a bronze medal each, which Anahita feels will help roller skating get recognition in India.
“Roller skating is seen as a recreation sport in our country. People don’t realise the hard work, long hours of practice and sacrifices that roller skaters have to put in to compete at a professional level. The medals at Asian Games will hopefully make Indians look at roller skating as a serious sport,” Anahita told Odisha Bytes.
Anahita herself is a slalom skater, which falls under Inline Freestyle category of roller skating.
“This is a highly technical field of roller skating that has five main disciplines – speed slalom, classic freestyle slalom, battle freestyle slalom, jump and freestyle slides. Until now my focus was completely on speed slalom. Recently I have started learning classic freestyle slalom and hope to compete in this category in the near future,” Anahita explained.
Though Anahita is “happiest” when she is skating, she would like to pursue studies with seriousness as well.
Anahita’s focus right now is on the Asian Championships in China, but the pre-teen has big dreams.
“My dream is to win at the World Skate Games and Asian Games and bring home medals. I want to make my nation proud,” Anahita said.
She took part at last year’s World Skate Games, in the U-19 category, in Argentina where she was placed 11th.
“It was great experience for me… I was much younger compared to other competitors some of whom were medal winners at international events,” said Anahita.
Age is on her side, and Anahita will get plenty more opportunities to fulfil her dream.
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