Occur every | Annual |
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Purpose | Nationwide state-wise multi-winter sports competition |
Organisations | Sports Authority of India Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports |
Khelo India Winter Games (KIWG) are the national level multidisciplinary grassroot winter games of India. [1] [2] Events include skiing, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, snow rugby, Ice stock sport, snow baseball, mountaineering, snowshoe running, ice hockey, figure skating and speed skating. [3] It was decided to hold the first Khelo India Winter Games in 2020 after the success of multiple editions of the Khelo India Youth Games. [4]
The first Khelo India Winter Games were held in two legs at two different venues: [5] [2]
Events are categorised into age groups as well as according to block, district and union territory and state levels. [6]
Khelo India Winter Games | |||||||||||||||||||
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Edition | Year | Host(s) | Participation | Sports | Gold | 1st Team | 2nd Team | 3rd Team | Ref | ||||||||||
T | T | T | |||||||||||||||||
I | 2020 | Leh | Gulmarg | 955 athletes (649 men & 306 women) | 17 | 49 | Jammu and Kashmir | Services | Uttarakhand | [3] [7] | |||||||||
25 February | 7–11 March | 26 | 29 | 21 | 76 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 13 | ||||||
II | 2021 | Leh | Gulmarg | 1,375 athletes | 14 | 27 | Jammu and Kashmir | Karnataka | Maharashtra | [8] [9] [10] | |||||||||
26 February – 2 March | 11 | 18 | 5 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | |||||||
III | 2023 | Gulmarg | More than 1,500 athletes | 11 | 106 | Jammu and Kashmir | Maharashtra | Himachal Pradesh | [11] [12] [13] | ||||||||||
10 February – 14 February | 26 | 25 | 25 | 76 | 18 | 8 | 6 | 27 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 31 | |||||||
IV | 2024 | Leh | Gulmarg | More than 500 athletes | 7 | 42 | Services | Karnataka | Maharashtra | [14] [15] | |||||||||
2–6 February | 21–25 February | 10 | 5 | 6 | 21 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 22 |
The first winter games were inaugurated by Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju. [16] The second winter games were inaugurated virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [17] The closing ceremony witnesses festivities and cultural events. [18] [10]
Ladakh is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh, but has been under Chinese control.
Leh is a city in Ladakh in the Himalayan region. It is the largest city and the joint capital of Ladakh. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh. The seat of the kingdom, Leh Palace, the former residence of the royal family of Ladakh, was built in the same style and about the same time as the Potala Palace in Tibet. Since they were both constructed in a similar style and at roughly the same time, the Potala Palace in Tibet and Leh Palace, the royal residence, are frequently contrasted. Leh is at an altitude of 3,524 m (11,562 ft), and is connected via National Highway 1 to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh-Manali Highway.
Kargil district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir-region. It is one of the two districts comprising the Indian-administered union territory of Ladakh. The district headquarters are in the city of Kargil. The district is bounded by the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the west, the Pakistani-administered administrative territory of Gilgit–Baltistan to the north, Ladakh's Leh district to the east, and the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south. Encompassing three historical regions known as Purig, Dras and Zanskar, the district lies to the northeast of the Great Himalayas and encompasses the majority of the Zanskar Range. Its population inhabits the river valleys of the Dras, Suru, Wakha Rong, and Zanskar.
Gulmarg, known as Gulmarag in Kashmiri, is a town, hill station, tourist destination, skiing destination, and a notified area committee in the Baramulla district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located at a distance of 31 km (19 mi) from Baramulla and 49 km (30 mi) from Srinagar. The town is situated in the Pir Panjal Range in the Western Himalayas and lies within the boundaries of Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary.
Nimo or Nyemo is a village and the headquarters of an eponymous community development block in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Leh tehsil, 35 km from Leh.
The Indian Himalayan Region is the section of the Himalayas within the Republic of India, spanning thirteen Indian states and union territories, namely Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh. The region is responsible for providing water to a large part of the Indian subcontinent and contains various flora and fauna.
The Doda River or the Stod River is a river 79 kilometres (49 mi) long, which forms the Stod Valley in the Zanskar valley of the Leh district in the Union Territory of Ladakh in India.
Tsarap River, also known as Tsarap Chu, forms the eastern part of the Zanskar valley, in the Ladakh union territory of India. The 182 km (113 mi) long river is used for irrigation in riparian villages, and for adventure sports by tourists.
Ice hockey is a sport that is gaining popularity in India. Ice hockey is played mostly in places like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in the north of India, where cold weather occurs and the game can be played outdoors. Ice hockey enthusiasts from other places in the country, as well as expatriates from abroad, head to places like Ladakh for the experience of playing in some of the highest elevated rinks in the world. There are a few artificial indoor ice skating rinks in the rest of the country, such as the Doon Ice Rink in Dehradun, which can accommodate ice hockey with an international-sized rink.
Popular sports in Jammu and Kashmir include cricket, football and winter sports along with sports like golf, water sports, Ice stock sport and adventure sports. The National Winter Games have been held in Gulmarg in 1996, 2004 and 2009. The first Khelo India Winter Games were held in February and March 2020 in Leh and Gulmarg. Jammu and Kashmir won the most gold medals while the Indian Army team came second with 8 gold medals. The second edition of the winter games were also held successfully in Gulmarg in 2020 with Jammu and Kashmir coming first and Karnataka second.
Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), are the annual national level multidisciplinary grassroot games in India held in January or February for two categories, namely under-17 years school students and under-21 college students. Every year best 1,000 kids will be given an annual scholarship of ₹5 lakh (US$6,000) for 8 years to prepare them for the international sporting events.
Khelo India University Games (KIUG) is a national level multi-sport event held in India, where athletes from universities across the country compete in different sports disciplines. The inaugural edition held in Odisha started on 22 February and concluded on 1 March 2020. It is organised by Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports along with Association of Indian Universities, Indian Olympic Association and National Sports Federation. It is the largest university level sports competition in India.
The Gulmarg Golf Club is a public golf course in a meadow at Gulmarg in Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies 35 km from Baramulla city. The golf course, at an elevation of 2,650 metres (8,690 ft) above sea level, is the second highest green golf course in the world. It lies 52 kilometres (32 mi) from Srinagar in the west. The golf course gets covered in by a thick layer of snow during the winter. It is open from April to November.
Nimmu–Padum–Darcha road or Zanskar Highway is a road between the Indian union territory of Ladakh and the state of Himachal Pradesh, passing through the region of Zanskar. It connects Nimmu in the Indus Valley to Padum, the capital of Zanskar, and to Darcha village in Lahul and Spiti. It provides an alternative to the Leh–Manali Highway in linking Ladakh with the rest of India. It was built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) of the Indian Army. The construction of road was completed in March 2024. The already completed Atal tunnel, and the proposed unidirectional-twin-tube total-4-lane Shingo La Tunnel, which is expected to be completed by 2025 will provide all weather connectivity and reduce the distance from Manali to Kargil by 522 km.
The BRICS Games is a yearly multi-sport event organised by the BRICS countries. The event is generally organized by the country which chairs the group in the year.
Khelo India: National Programme for Development of Sports, branded as Khelo India, aims at improving India's sports culture at the grass-root level through organized talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development. It is a Government of India programme launched in 2017-18 under the tenure Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Ministers Vijay Goel and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. There has also been an emphasis on including traditional Indian games in Khelo India events in order to revive their popularity.
Aadil Manzoor Peer, also known as Syed Aadi, is an Indian international ice stock sport athlete. Aadi has a right hand style. He has represented India at an international level. In 2018 Aadil Manzoor Peer represented India in Austria and attained 10th rank.
India is considered an emerging country in the sport of curling. The country's men's team finished second in the B-Division of the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships. India's mixed doubles team also won silver at the 2022 Kazakhstan Curling Cup WCT Mixed Doubles World Curling Tour event.
Icestock is a sport that has become popular in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in India that have a cold climate and is being taken up in the rest of the country as well.