Volunteers and scribes make up for the absence of India in the Winter Paralympics

After a superb performance by its athletes in the last summer Paralympics in Paris two years ago, many expected India to showcase its strength in the winter Paralympics. Located in a tropical warmer zone, India has yet to make its debut in the Winter Paralympics.

Though two of its athletes—Arif Mohammad Khan and Stanzin Lundup, both from Kashmir—participated in the Winter Olympic Games, finished at inconsequential positions. It went unrepresented in the Paralympics.

Interestingly, in the Paris (summer) Paralympics, India finished an impressive 19th with a rich haul of 29 medals, including seven gold, its best tally in any Olympic event. Though China, like the Winter Paralympics, finished at the top in Paris with a massive tally of 221 medals, including 94 gold, India was the third among the Asian nations. Japan had finished 11th with 41 medals, including 14 gold. Canada was 13th with the same number of medals—29—as India had.

Canada, however, had more gold, 10.

The Summer Paralympics were a much bigger show with 4433 athletes from 170 nations, with 549 gold medals at stake. Here, there are 71 gold medals at stake, and the number of athletes is 611 from 55 nations.

In the ongoing Winter Paralympics, China is the undisputed leader with a total haul of 27 medals, including 10 gold and seven silver, while Canada has logged in 10 medals, including a gold and a silver.

Participation is more important than winning medals alone. Indian athletes may be missing from competition arenas, but sports enthusiasts from the fastest-growing economy are a visible minority here.

A journalist, Ranjith Mani, has travelled all the way from Bengaluru to do freelancing. It is his first experience covering the Olympics/Paralympics, and he is excited about it. He has been to Corina and other venues in the mountains, as well as watching Para Ice Hockey at Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena.

Also here, but in a different role, is a medical scientist, Soumick Chatterjee, working in AI medical imaging. He was in Germany for five years before moving to Italy three years ago with his girlfriend. His field of work has been medical imaging and genetics. He likes his assignment as a volunteer at the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Media Centre.

There are several volunteers from other South Asian nations, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, as none of these nations has any athletes here.

(Toronto based Prabhjot Singh is an award-winning journalist recognized for investigative journalism, environment and business reporting, sports and feature writing. AMedia Consultant, he has remained associated with various news agencies, including Reuters, and media houses like PTC News (India/Canada), Parvasi Media (Canada) the Liberal World (India), and The Indian Panorama, New York. He is interested in Indian Diaspora and the Sikh Diaspora in particular. His work has appeared in various international and national newspapers, magazines and journals.)