Majid JahangirGulmarg, Feb. 25 -- When Bhavani Thekkeda Nanjunda crossed the finish line, lungs burning, skis carving their final arcs into Gulmarg snow, it was more than a victory. It was a reckoning with geography, with doubt, with destiny.
Bhavani grew up in the coffee-scented hills of Kodagu, Karnataka where the earth is red, the mornings are misty, and snow exists only on television screens.
She was 23 the first time she felt the sting of ice on her cheeks, before she learned how silence sounds different when it's blanketed in white.
On Tuesday at the Khelo India Winter Games 2026 in Gulmarg, at 8,700 feet above sea level, the 30-year-old daughter of a coffee farmer became the queen of sprint.
Bhavani surged to gold in the Nordic w...