At just 3 years old, freshman Sadhana Ganesan started skating, and fell in love with the sport. By age 7, Ganesan was already competing in short-track speed skating. Speed skating is another variation of competitive ice skating, where the competitors have to skate on an oval ice track, and the goal is to finish the race first.
“I started inline skating because I had been a very energetic child, and my mom couldn’t get me to sit for 2 minutes, so she put me in the class, and I fell in love with it,” Ganesan said. “And she was happy because I was also tired after practice.”
Ganesan has been inline skating for about 12 years, and ice speed skating for 9, placing overall national champion on inline skating 6 times, and national champion 25 times in different distance events. Additionally, she has received 4th place twice in the Ice Nationals.
Most recently, Ganesan placed 9th overall in an international competition last April in France.
Looking into the future, Ganesan plans to continue pursuing her dream of making the USA team for inline skating, and qualifying for the world championships. After that, she also plans on transitioning fully into ice skating, attempting to compete at the Olympics.
“When I first started inline and ice speed skating, I was the only brown person; however, now there are many brown people in the sport,” explained Ganesan.” I am so glad and proud to be able to represent and motivate other kids of my ethnicity and show it was possible.”
At only 15 years old, Ganesan has accomplished incredible things, and she does not plan on stopping. She is an inspiration to many kids who dream of being a part of inline skating, and to kids who were not previously aware of the sport. Now they know it’s possible.
