Khelo India Winter Games: Army makes rousing start; Himachal, CRPF also among gold medals

Gulmarg: The Khelo India Winter Games (KIWG) 2026 kicked off its Gulmarg leg in Jammu and Kashmir with a dominant display by the Indian Army, who claimed three of the five gold medals on offer on Day One on Monday. CRPF and Himachal Pradesh each secured one gold.The day belonged to emerging talents and institutional strength rather than established favorites. In women's alpine giant slalom, Himachal's Sandhya Thakur edged out her more decorated teammate Aanchal Thakur in a thrilling contest, clocking 1:23.285 to Aanchal's 1:23.985.
Karnataka's promising 17-year-old Jiah Aryan, competing in her second KIWG, delivered a strong bronze (1:31.064) against seniors who recently represented India at the Asian Winter Games.Nordic skiing delivered high drama and emotion. CRPF's Kajal Kumari Rai produced a stunning upset in the women's 15km cross-country event at the Golf Course, finishing in 52:08.29 to relegate Karnataka's veteran Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda, who had claimed a hat-trick of golds in the previous edition, to bronze (53:20.44). Kajal's CRPF teammate Renu Danu took silver (53:10.81).In an emotional moment, Kajal, originally from Meghalaya, dedicated her victory to her father, who passed away in February last year.The Army opened strongly in the men's Nordic sprint (1.5km), where Sunny Singh from Kathua, trained at the High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg, took gold in 3:06.83, leading an impressive Army 1-2-3 sweep with Shubam Parihar (silver, 3:07.35) and Manjeet (bronze, 3:08.73).In snowboarding men's slalom, the Army again dominated through Vivek Rana's gold (1:01.439), followed by Kulvinder Sharma (silver, 1:02.854) and J&K's Vikar Ahmad Lone (bronze, 1:03.174).The men's Alpine Giant Slalom saw another Army clean sweep: Mayank Panwar gold (1:06.479), Baqir Hussain silver (1:07.194), and Devendra Gurung bronze (1:09.473).