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Bhavani Thekkada standing on skis in a blue India race suit on a groomed piste, snow-covered ridges behind her.

Cross-Country Skier · India

Bhavani Thekkada

From Kodagu to the world's Nordic tracks.

  • World Cup starter
  • 2 World Championships
  • International medallist
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The first Indian woman to win a medal in a FIS cross-country race.

Two bronzes in Chile in 2025, a World Cup start list at Ruka in the December that followed, and a sprint quarter-final at the Asian Winter Games. She reached all of it from a country with no cross-country course, no domestic race calendar and no coach in her discipline.

  • 3 World Cup starts Ruka, Trondheim and Davos, inside sixteen days 2025
  • 2 World Championships Planica and Trondheim, two editions on the start list 2023 · 2025
  • 2 international bronze Sprint and 5 km at Corralco, on the Chilean championship card 2025
Bhavani in a blue team jacket and cap, cut out against a plain background.

Who she is

It started with a film, and a race on television.

She grew up on her family's coffee farm in Kodagu, in the hills of southern Karnataka, where it has never snowed and where neither of her parents had ever seen snow either. In 2013 she watched a Bollywood film with a trekking sequence in it and went looking for the mountains it was set in. That took her to Darjeeling, to a mountaineering qualification, and to a job instructing in Kashmir, which is where she first put on skis.

Cross-country came later, and secondhand. Watching the 2018 Pyeongchang Games she saw the Norwegian Marit Bjørgen race, and decided that was the event she wanted. She left the instructing job to train full time. Her father, who has spent his life on the farm, told her that if it made her happy she should do it.

Born
14 May 1995, Kodagu, Karnataka
First saw snow
Aged 20
Mentored by
Shiva Keshavan, six-time Olympian
Trains across
Kashmir, Europe, South America, New Zealand

Level of competition

  • 5 seasons on FIS record

    On the FIS record

    Scored and published by the governing body since January 2022

    2022–2026
  • 3 World Cup starts

    FIS Cross-Country World Cup

    Ruka, Trondheim and Davos, inside sixteen days

    2025
  • 2 World Championships

    Nordic World Ski Championships

    Planica 2023 and Trondheim 2025

    2023 · 2025
  • 1 sprint quarter-final

    Asian Winter Games, Harbin

    Carried India's flag at the opening ceremony

    2025
  • 2 international bronze

    Corralco, Chile

    Sprint and 5 km, on the Chilean national championship card

    2025
  • 3 national medals

    Khelo India Winter Games, Gulmarg

    Gold in the sprint, bronze at 10 km and 15 km, for Karnataka

    2026
The sport

There are two techniques and two distance ranges. She races all four.

There is no permanent snow in India for her discipline, so her year follows it across the hemispheres: Kashmir and Europe from December to March, conditioning on the coast through the Indian summer, then South America or New Zealand in August and September for the southern winter.

01

Kodagu to Davos

Thirty years, one direction. It begins in a district that has never had snow and ends on a World Cup start list at Davos.

All the records, on the record

Eleven starts, every one of them scored and published by FIS.

01 / 11

2022

First FIS races

Akureyri, Iceland

First FIS-scored starts, in sprint and 10 km interval start.

Sprint qualification 7th · Interval start 6th

02 / 11

2023

Akureyri, second season

Akureyri, Iceland

Fourth in both the sprint and the interval start.

4th · 4th

03 / 11

2023

Nordic World Ski Championships

Planica, Slovenia

First World Championships start, in the 10 km interval start.

104th

04 / 11

2024

Eastern Europe Cup

Schuchinsk, Kazakhstan

Continental cup racing in sprint and interval start.

42nd · 35th

05 / 11

2024

First Scandinavian racing block

Idre, Sweden · Seefeld, Austria · Lygna, Norway

Three FIS meetings in December, the first sustained block on European snow.

06 / 11

2025

Asian Winter Games

Harbin, China

India's flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Reached the sprint quarter-finals and finished the 5 km freestyle in 18:10.4.

Sprint 24th, quarter-finalist · 5 km 25th

07 / 11

2025

Nordic World Ski Championships

Trondheim, Norway

Second World Championships, in the sprint and the 10 km interval start.

Sprint 111th · 10 km 105th

08 / 11

2025

International podium in Chile

Corralco, Chile

Third place on consecutive days at Corralco, in the interval start and the sprint. Reported in India as the first international cross-country medals won by an Indian woman.

  • BronzeSprint
  • Bronze5 km
09 / 11

2025

World Cup debut

Ruka, Finland

First FIS Cross-Country World Cup start, at 66°N in northern Finland, about forty kilometres short of the Arctic Circle.

10 km 81st · Sprint 77th

10 / 11

2025

World Cup, Trondheim and Davos

Trondheim, Norway · Davos, Switzerland

Two further World Cup weekends in December, closing the 2025 calendar year.

Best 76th

11 / 11

2026

Khelo India Winter Games

Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Gold in the 1.5 km sprint in 4:13.91, bronze in the 15 km and bronze in the 10 km, competing for Karnataka.

  • Gold1.5 km sprint
  • Bronze10 km
  • Bronze15 km

The road to 2030

Stated targets, not results. Everything above this point is on the record.

  1. 2027

    A third World Championship

    Back to the start list, with two editions already behind her.

  2. 2028

    Asian Winter Games and Worlds

    Qualification for both, on stronger international form.

  3. 2029

    Olympic qualification pathway

    World Championships, and the points that decide 2030.

  4. 2030

    Winter Olympics

    The reason the rest of it is planned the way it is.

The target

2030

Winter Olympics

French Alps, France · 1 to 17 February 2030

Everything above this is arranged around one start list. Qualification runs on FIS points, and points come from starts she has to reach, enter and finish before the window closes.

Now
Full FIS calendar, largely self-funded
2027–2029
World Championships and Asian Winter Games
Decides it
FIS points across the qualification window
What support pays for
Beyond the finish line

Qualifying is the target. It is not the whole of the ambition.

  • A sport with no home crowd

    India has no permanent cross-country base and almost no domestic race calendar. Every season she competes in is assembled from abroad.

  • Making the sport legible

    Most people in India have never watched a cross-country race. Part of the job is explaining what it is and why the distances are hard.

  • Athletes behind her

    A pathway that exists on paper is different from one somebody has already walked. She would rather not be the last as well as among the first.

  • Proving the ceiling is higher

    An Indian woman on a World Cup start list changes what the next selection meeting thinks is realistic.

02

107 degrees of latitude

Every race location across six seasons, plotted by latitude and longitude. The vertical axis is the point. She races from inside the Arctic Circle to the far side of the Tropic of Capricorn, and started from a district that has never seen snow.

  • 66°NRukaFinlandNorthernmost start
  • 12°NKodaguIndiaHome
  • 41°SAntillancaChileSouthernmost start
World map marking every place she has raced. The same information is listed in the table below. Arctic CircleTropic of CancerEquatorTropic of Capricorn KodaguHarbinCorralcoRuka
  • Home
  • India
  • FIS and championships
  • World Cup and podium

All 14 locations as a list
Every race location, with event, best result and latitude
LocationEvent YearsBest result Latitude
Kodagu, IndiaHome district1995Home district. 12.4°N, below the Tropic of Cancer.12.4°N
Gulmarg, IndiaNational championships · Khelo India Winter Games2022, 2026Gold, Nordic sprint, Khelo India 202634.0°N
Akureyri, IcelandFIS races2022, 2023, 20244th, sprint and interval start, 202365.7°N
Planica, SloveniaNordic World Ski Championships2023World Championships debut, 104th · FIS race, 31st46.5°N
Schuchinsk, KazakhstanEastern Europe Cup202435th, Eastern Europe Cup, 202452.9°N
Idre, SwedenFIS races202461st, sprint, 202461.9°N
Seefeld, AustriaFIS races2024111th, interval start, 202447.3°N
Lygna, NorwayFIS races20242024 Scandinavian racing block60.4°N
Harbin, ChinaAsian Winter Games202523rd, sprint classical, quarter-finalist, 202545.8°N
Trondheim, NorwayWorld Championships · World Cup2025World Championships and a World Cup start, 202563.4°N
Antillanca, ChileFIS race20254th, interval start, 2025-40.8°S
Corralco, ChileSouth American Cup · national championships20253rd, sprint and 5 km, 2025-38.5°S
Ruka, FinlandWorld Cup2025World Cup debut, 76th in the sprint, 202566.2°N
Davos, SwitzerlandWorld Cup202576th, World Cup sprint and interval start, 202546.8°N
03

The mountain came first

She was a certified mountaineering instructor before she was a racer, and picked up skiing as part of that job.

Bhavani racing in a blue World Championships bib, arm extended mid-stride, against a wide snow-covered mountain massif.

5,642 m

Mt. Elbrus

Russia

The highest summit in Europe.

Mount Ruapehu under a deep blue sky, its snow cap above dark volcanic ground, with Bhavani standing at the right holding ski poles.

2,797 m

Mt. Ruapehu

New Zealand

An active volcano, and a ski field. She took her international skiing certification here in 2019.

Qualifications

In the order she earned them

  1. A group of skiers and coaches standing shoulder to shoulder holding their skis upright, wrapped in shawls against the cold.Darjeeling and Manali
    Step 012013–2017

    Climbing

    Qualified on rock and snow first.

    • Grade A Adventure CourseABVIMAS
    • Special Basic MountaineeringHimalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling
  2. Bhavani in team kit and mirrored glasses in front of a Khelo India Ladakh backdrop, upright skis flanking her.Himalayan Mountaineering Institute
    Step 022017

    Instructing

    A teaching qualification, then a year teaching it.

    • Method of InstructionHimalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling
    • Guest Instructor, one yearHimalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling
  3. Bhavani wearing medals and a shawl, holding her skis, in front of a Khelo India Winter Games 2024 Jammu and Kashmir Ladakh backdrop.Gulmarg, Kashmir
    Step 032018

    Skiing

    Skis arrived as equipment for the instructing job.

    • Basic and intermediate skiingJawaharlal Institute of Mountaineering
    • Advanced skiingIndian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, Kashmir
  4. Mount Ruapehu under a deep blue sky, its snow cap above dark volcanic ground, with Bhavani standing at the right holding ski poles.Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand
    Step 042019

    Abroad

    The first certification earned outside India.

    • International skiing certificationSnowsports instructor certification
04

The whole record, 2020 to 2026

Every result, by year, with event, place, distance and finishing position.
YearEvent LocationResult Medal Source
2026 Khelo India Winter GamesSprint 1.5 km Gulmarg 4:13.91 gold Khelo India
2026 Khelo India Winter Games15 km Gulmarg 53:20.44 bronze Khelo India
2026 Khelo India Winter Games10 km Gulmarg bronze Khelo India
2025 FIS Cross-Country World Cup10 km interval start Ruka, Finland 81st FIS
2025 Nordic World Ski Championships10 km interval start Trondheim, Norway 105th FIS
2025 Asian Winter GamesSprint classical, quarter-finalist Harbin, China 24th Asian Winter Games
2025 Chilean national championships (FIS)Interval start Corralco, Chile 3rd bronze FIS
2025 Chilean national championships (FIS)Sprint Corralco, Chile 3rd bronze FIS
2023 Nordic World Ski Championships10 km interval start Planica, Slovenia 104th FIS
2023 FIS racesSprint and interval start Akureyri, Iceland 4th · 4th FIS
The archive

Six seasons, photographed

Bhavani Thekkada standing on skis in a blue India race suit on a groomed piste, snow-covered ridges behind her.
Race
Bhavani climbing a rise on skis in dark training kit, poles high, forested slopes behind.
Training
Bhavani on roller skis with poles raised, on the road in front of the domed Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
A pair of machine-cut classic ski tracks running away through snow between pine trees, a single skier small in the distance.
Training
A line of skiers in orange bibs waiting at a race start on open snow, forest and mountains behind.
Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, India
A group of skiers and coaches standing shoulder to shoulder holding their skis upright, wrapped in shawls against the cold.
Mountain
A still alpine lake below a long snow-streaked mountain ridge in flat winter light.
International
Mount Ruapehu under a deep blue sky, its snow cap above dark volcanic ground, with Bhavani standing at the right holding ski poles.
Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand · 2019
Bhavani training on roller skis along a tarmac road beside an autumn field, poles planted mid-push.
Training
Bhavani seen from behind in an India team jacket, standing on skis at the top of a slope with a city spread across the valley below.
Training
All 20 photographs as a grid

06

Athlete, speaker, storyteller

Four talks, all of them drawn from the same decade of doing it. Each one is about a specific problem she had to solve, with the numbers attached. None of them is about believing in yourself.

01

Starting from zero infrastructure

What it actually takes to reach an international start line from a country with no facility, no calendar and no coaching in your discipline.

02

The mountain before the medal

Mountaineering, instructing, and how an unglamorous apprenticeship turned into an endurance career.

03

Being the only one in the room

The practical reality of being the sole woman on a team sheet, and what changes when somebody has gone first.

04

Endurance, honestly

What a 10 km interval start costs, how a season is planned, and why most of the work is invisible.

The athlete is on the FIS record. The storyteller is what got an Indian woman from a coffee farm onto a World Cup start list with no federation budget behind her, by explaining the point of it to everyone whose yes she needed.

Her race season runs from late November to March. Dates inside it are limited.

07

Partnerships

Bhavani races a full FIS calendar largely at her own expense, with training help borrowed from other nations' teams. A season has a fixed shape, and support lands at particular points inside it.

Current support

  • Athlete support

    Athlete support through their sports programme: sports psychologist, nutritionist and strength coach, and conditioning blocks in Mumbai through the Indian summer.

  • State support

    State backing from her home state, the department that has recognised her results and carried her through domestic selection and the Khelo India programme.

Open to

  • Sponsorship
  • Brand partnerships
  • Campaigns
  • Product collaborations
  • Athlete partnerships
A season, and where support lands in it
  • Pre-season on snowTraining blocks
  • World Cup periodTravel, wax service
  • FIS racingTravel
  • Khelo India, nationalsTravel
  • World ChampionshipsWax service, race skis
01

Training blocks on snow

The European race season opens in late November, and the athletes on that start list have been on snow since October. A pre-season block in Scandinavia or the Alps decides whether she arrives race-fit or arrives to get fit.

02

Competition travel

The 2025 December block ran Ruka to Trondheim to Davos in sixteen days. Entry fees and accommodation are sometimes covered by the federation. Getting there rarely is.

03

Coaching and wax service

Every other athlete on a World Cup start list arrives with a service team reading the snow that morning. Skis waxed wrong for the temperature cost more time than any amount of fitness gets back.

04

Race skis and kit

Classic and freestyle skis in cold, normal and warm grinds, plus poles, boots and a racing suit. Equipment is graded to conditions, so a single pair does not cover a season.

08

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