Two-time Olympian Arif Mohammad Khan has praised the Khelo India Winter Games while also urging the Union sports ministry to develop world-class infrastructure on the slopes of Gulmarg to help Indian athletes prepare for international winter sports competitions.
They arrived with borrowed equipment, southern accents, paramilitary discipline and outsized ambition. By the time the Games concluded, they had signalled a quiet but decisive shift in India’s winter sporting landscape.
Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said Gulmarg will emerge as a global winter sports hub as Khelo India Winter Games expand into a 15-day festival combining sports, tourism and cultural events.
The Chief Minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 6th edition of the Khelo India Winter Games at Gulmarg in north Kashmir.
Pranav Madav Surapaneni won Telangana’s second gold medal of the Khelo India Winter Games 2025, winning the ice-skating competition but all attention on Saturday was on the blockbuster ice-hockey league match between Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
Approximately 1500 athletes across the country will participate in the games that will take place in Gulmarg and will be played across nine sports events.
The Prime Minister said that sports have a global dimension and this vision has been guiding the recent reforms in the sports ecosystem.
The competitions of the Khelo India J&K Winter Games will be held at Kongdori in Kashmir's hill resort of Gulmarg in four age categories.
