Racing up the slope

Gurung (29) says all he has is due to the Indian Army. When he joined the Army in 1998, he didn’t even know such a thing as skiing existed. But he got the opportunities and, when tested by the Sports Medicine Centre that year, was found to be fit for the sport.

He took up 15 km cross-country skiing, which is both a test of endurance and speed. The option was 10 km but that was too short, he said; endurance, according to him, is his asset.

From there he was on a fast track to the big time. He won National Championships and was named the best athlete at the National Winter Games in Auli, 2002.

Then he hit his first snowdrift, at the Asian Winter Games in Japan, 2003. After months of training, and puffed up with pride at representing India, Gurung was sent back from Tokyo airport — because his passport had a Nepal address. All his training, all those dreams, all the sleepless nights, came undone in a moment.

‘‘I don’t know such formalities, only the sahib log know these things.’’ And no sahib from the Winter Games Federation of India (WGFI) or Indian Olympic Association can explain how the fiasco happened. Did no one have a look at the passport? Not a single soul.

Two years down the line, the WGFI made amends of sorts by sending Gurung to Norway for training. And in March, in his first attempt at an Olympics qualifiers, he stood ninth in Turkey to qualify for Turin, 2006.

But the Japan fiasco must have rankled, you ask him. His face calm, he replied: ‘‘Working in the army, you get the discipline which keeps you from getting frustrated.’’

Wishing to break through that calm, you ask: What if war breaks out in February 2006? Does Gurung think his army will let him go and live his dream in Turin? His reply is swift and sure: ‘‘I didn’t join the army to ski.’’