Vishwaraj Rajendrasinh Jadeja

Club / Team

Schaatsteam Wim Nieuwenhuizen: Netherlands

Injuries	A back injury left him unable to walk for a month in the lead-up to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. He did not compete at the 2018 Games. (olympics.com, 18 Nov 2021; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 23 Jun 2019) During the 2010/11 season he suffered from a hernia that affected his training. (schaatsteamwimn.nl, 01 Apr 2017) During the early years of his inline skating career in India, he crashed while training on his bicycle and suffered injuries that kept him away from the sport for a year. (chaaipani.com, 09 Aug 2016)
Other sports	He competed in inline skating at national level in India, and in 2007 he was assistant captain of the Indian team that took part in the 12th Asian Roller Hockey Championship in Kolkata, India. (vishwaraj.com, 01 Dec 2016)
Famous relatives	His grandfather played field hockey in India at state level. His father, Rajendrasinh Jadeja, was a roller hockey player and an inline speed skater in India, who was national champion on three occasions. He has also been a roller skating coach since 1995, running an academy in India that coaches 1500 children annually. His aunt Krishna Jadeja has also competed in inline speed skating. (vishwaraj.com, 01 Dec 2016; chaaipani.com, 09 Aug 2016)

Reason for choosing this sport

He grew up in a sport-oriented family and dreamed of competing at the Olympic Games in inline skating. He decided to switch to speed skating after inline skating failed to make it onto the Olympic programme. "Coming from a family of athletes, my love for sports is quite natural. As roller skating did not make it to the Olympics, as an athlete you have to do something to make your dreams come true. So I moved to Europe, I moved there and looked for a coach to achieve this goal."

Most influential person in career	His father Rajendrasinh Jadeja. (vishwaraj.com, 01 Dec 2016)
Awards and honours	His inline speed skating achievements during the 2004/05 season saw him receive the Sardar Patel Award, one of the highest honours given to athletes by the government of the Indian state of Gujarat. (vishwaraj.com, 01 Dec 2016)

Name of coach	Wim Nieuwenhuizen, NED
Training Regime	He includes yoga and meditation in his schedule.
When and where did you begin this sport?	He initially took up inline skating at age four and competed in the sport during his youth, winning multiple state titles in India. He tried skating on ice for the first time in 2008 while studying in Denmark, and took part in his first race in Sweden the same year. "My first race on ice for long track speed skating was in Sweden in December 2008."

Nicknames	Vish (chaaipani.com, 09 Aug 2016)
Sporting philosophy / motto	"Don't repeat history. Create history." (Instagram profile, 21 Oct 2017)
Other information	FROM INDIA TO DENMARK AND THE NETHERLANDS After realising he would not make it to the Olympic Games in inline skating, he initially followed his parents' wishes and began studying electrical engineering in India. But he could not let go of his dream of representing India at Olympic level, so he decided to switch to ice speed skating. He persuaded his parents to help him move to Denmark where he could study computer sciences, and tried skating on ice for the first time at a race in Sweden in 2008, on borrowed skates. "I used to deliver newspapers, just to get used to the cold. I wanted to become an Olympian. My family wasn't happy with my decision. My actual dream was never to be an engineer, but to prove that I am the best at skating. The only way to do that was to switch to ice skating and represent India at the Olympics." Not long after taking up ice skating, he met a journalist who put him in touch with Dutch coach Wim Nieuwenhuizen, and soon after he ended his studies in Denmark and moved to the Netherlands. "It wasn't that I didn't like studies, but I chose to be a good athlete instead of a bad engineer. I dropped out again. And that's one of the reasons I moved to the Netherlands, because if you want to play cricket you go to India, if you want to play football you go to Brazil, if you want to do long track, you come to the Netherlands." (Pragyaan YouTube channel, 01 Sep 2023; olympics.com, 18 Nov 2021; chaaipani.com, 09 Aug 2016; milaap.org, 14 Sep 2015; sg.news.yahoo.com, 16 Feb 2015) SKATING AT HIGH ALTITUDE In January 2019 he skated on Tso Moriri Lake in the Changthang Plateau of Ladakh, India, at an altitude of around 4500 metres. His journey was filmed for a short documentary called 'On Thin Ice', which was released in 2020. "It was a friend's suggestion. Due to my injury [to his back before the 2018 Olympic Winter Games], I had a lot of spare time. I did my research and found out that no one has recorded skating at above 4000 metres altitude and several Indian lakes are located higher than that. Two hours before I was to skate on the lake, I passed out because of the lack of oxygen. My crew had to administer oxygen to me. But then I had to do what I had come here to do." (olympics.com, 18 Nov 2021; Ravi Mistry YouTube channel, 24 Sep 2020; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 23 Jun 2019)

www.vishwaraj.com/
www.facebook.com/wishwarajONthinICE
twitter.com/wishwaraj_vish

Superstitions / Rituals / Beliefs

Before racing he goes to the start line and sits on his blades for several seconds to visualise the whole race. (Pragyaan YouTube channel, 01 Sep 2023)