Interview with skating enthusiast Grishma Patil

Grishma Patil with Milkha Singh

Grishma is the hostess and one of the main organisers of this year’s National Championships. I had the opportunity to talk to her about her plans for skating now and in the future.

How long have you been involved in skating?

We have been involved in the sport for about a year and a half.

After hosting the 50th Nationals, what did you think of how the world championships were organized?

I thought that the event was very well-organized, and the amenities were world class. All the events were on time, and everything was done very professionally and efficiently. Since I hope to bring the World Championships to Virar sometime, I learnt from watching the World Championships.

You were talking about maybe bringing an international event to Mumbai; how do you plan to prepare to bid for something like that? What would be the additional responsibilities of holding an international event?

Obviously there would be a bidding amount to be paid but apart from this, we still have to do the research on the exact bidding process. We would have to bring in multiple sponsors, and build up our facilities which are already quite excellent. I was happy to see that the track in Belgium and the track here in Virar were similar, and that will obviously make our bid more valuable.

How do you feel organisation of international skating is different from the way it is done in India? What did you bring back from watching the World Championships that you would like to implement here?

I think that what we accomplished last year at the 50th Nationals was close to how things were organized in Oostende. However I do think that it was a little better organized over there. Even so, I think that we will be able to match that level of excellence at this year’s Nationals.

What are the challenges of hosting an event of such great magnitude as the Nationals?

Last year, we were quite nervous about hosting the nationals for the first time because we knew that we had to match the standards that you skaters are used to. Despite the jitters, from the reviews we got, it seems last year’s Nationals were one of the best ever held. With the help of the VasaI Virar corporation, we hope to surpass what we did last year and make this nationals even better because now we know what needs to be done and how to do it.