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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Indian | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 2 December 1991 (age 33) Pune, Maharashtra, India | |||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Fergusson College | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Country | India | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Speed skating | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Shruti Kotwal (born 2 December 1991) is an Indian ice speed skater. [1] [2] She is the country's first professional female ice skater. [2]
Kotwal was born and brought up in Pune, Maharashtra, India. When she was seven years old she began roller-skating and held national gold medals in the sport before changing to ice-skating. [3] [4]
At the South Asia Championship in 2011 she secured gold medals in the categories of 500m, 1000m and 1500m. The following year, 2012, she received a scholarship from the International Skating Union, which enabled her to travel to Germany for speed skating training under Canadian skater Jeremy Wotherspoon. [2] [4]
In 2017 she represented India at the Asian Winter Games. In 2014 she broke the national record she had previously set herself in the 500 metre speed skating event. [5]
She holds 5 gold medals from the Indian National Ice-Skating Championships and a bronze medal from the National Winter Games.
The Winter Olympic Games, also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BCE to 394 CE. The Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1,500 years later in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, and skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992, the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games were held in the same year. A decision to change this was made in 1986, when during the 91st International Olympic Committee session, IOC members decided to alternate the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games on separate four-year cycles in even-numbered years. Also, at that same congress it was decided that 1992 Winter Olympics would be the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games and that to change the rotation, the games that would be held in 1996 would be brought forward by two years, being scheduled to 1994. After those games, the next were to be held in 1998 when the four-year Olympic Cycle resumed.
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Tintu Luka is an Indian track and field athlete, who predominantly competes in the middle-distance running events. Born in Valathode, Kerala, she is the national record holder in the women's 800 metres. Luka represented India at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. In addition to being the 2015 Asian Champion in the 800 meters, she has won a total of six medals at the Asian Athletics Championships.
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Roller sport is popular as a recreational sport in India, specially roller skating for children, and it is gaining popularity as a competitive sport. There are clubs in cities and towns, and roller skating is taught in some schools of urban areas.
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India competed in the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo and Obihiro, Japan from February 19 to 26.
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Erin Jackson is an American speed skater, roller derby player, and Olympic gold medalist. Jackson is the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport. She qualified for The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland, where she competed in inline speed skating in various distances on road and track. She also qualified to compete in the 500 meters long track speed skating event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
The women's 1000 m competition in speed skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 17 February, at the Beijing National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing. Miho Takagi of Japan won the event, becoming the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist in this event, and second Asian gold medalist after Zhang Hong in 2014. It was also her first Olympic gold medal in an individual event. Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands won the silver medal, her first Olympic medal. Brittany Bowe of the United States was third, her first individual Olympic medal.
