Ishwariya Ganesh did so after earning three gold medals in the three selection trials held by the Yachting Association of India.
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Ishwariya Ganesh, the country’s first woman to compete in the RS:X class of windsurfing, qualified for the 2022 Asian Games. She did so after earning three gold medals in the three selection trials held by the Yachting Association of India. In India, the YAI organization is in charge of regulating the sports of windsurfing, motorboating, and powerboat racing. Ishwariya scored 600 points out of 600 in the RS:X trials during the past two months. Owing to this, she became the first and only female RS:X windsurfer to compete for India at the Asian Games. The Asian Games 2022 are scheduled to take place from September 23 to October 8, 2023 in Hangzhou, China.
Ishwariya had previously played a variety of sports. However, her life changed when her father read about a sailing program in the newspaper. He then enrolled both Ishwariya and his younger brother Sachin in the program. But he had no idea what lay ahead for her in the future. She went to an Internet cafe and accessed YouTube to view windsurfer videos. She used to spend hours on the Internet researching the technical aspects of windsurfing, training techniques, sail trimming, and even fitness routines. Her first windsurfing board was a junior-class Techno 293, which she bought in Goa. With the assistance of a nearby fisherman, she learned how to sail on the windsurfing board in the Palar River, Kovalam Backwater, and Besant Nagar Beach.
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In January and February 2018, she put her newly gained skills into action by competing in the Goa Sailing Week and the Singapore Open Windsurfing Championship, where she won medals in both Junior Events. Midway through 2018, she began practicing in the Tamil Nadu Sailing Club using her brand-new, French-imported RS One youth class windsurfing equipment. She earned two silver medals at the National Youth Open competition in less than a year. Ishwariya took part in every junior, youth, and senior windsurfing competition that were conducted in India. She used to travel for weeks with her father, mother, and younger brother Sachin (a windsurfer on the B squad). Handling the expenses was not a problem for the family.
She lessened her reliance on online videos and favored face-to-face communication, practice, and training with Senior National Champions like Jerome Kumar, Prakash Alexander, and Derrick Menezes. She acquired her Olympic Class RSX women’s windsurfing kit in 2019 and began practicing. In India, RSX windsurfing has historically been a predominantly male sport. As a result, Ishwariya has been competing as the lone woman athlete with the finest male windsurfers of India at the RSX National Championships.
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