Varshini Kavitha Ravichandran
| Photo Credit: Special association
By the time she was 17, bike owner Varshini Kavitha Ravichandran had participated in 82 sporting occasions, profitable in 72. “I realised if I were to achieve anything in life, it was going to be because of cycling,” says the 21-year-old, who’s from Mettupalayam. Varshini holds the distinction of being the first woman chief judge in a National Track Cycling Championship in India.
Varshini’s function is named commissaire in biking, and is much like a referee in any sporting occasion. “We are the chief judge, and our decision is final,” she explains. To qualify, she took up programs together with the National Commissaire Course – Level I (in the Track self-discipline) and Elite National Commissaire Course Level – II (in the Mountain Bike self-discipline) in Trivandrum.
“My first event as a commissaire was the Asian Track Cycling Championships, New Delhi in June 2022,” says Varshini, an alumnus of PSG College of Technology in the metropolis. When she dons the commissionaire cap, all that issues to Varshini is self-discipline. “My parents have taught me that discipline is a principle one must hold above all else,” she says, including that the similar applies when one is biking on the monitor.
Varshini is now settled in Hosur for work, and travels by way of the 12 months for biking expeditions. She received gold for Tamil Nadu in 2019 in the Track match held by the National School Games Federation of India. “Riders can be active for only a certain number of years, which is why I chose to become a commissaire,” she says, including that turning a coach was additionally an possibility. “But it is a huge responsibility. As a coach, a rider’s entire career depends on us,” she says including that her determination additionally needed to do along with her monetary capability. “Cycling is an expensive sport. My current cycle costs ₹5 lakhs, for which we had to take a loan and save up for three years.”
Varshini says that biking has modified her persona. She provides: “It has helped me develop confidence, taught me to handle difficult situations. I owe a lot to this sport.”
