From towering mountains and rocky terrains to roaring waves and high winds, Indian women adventurers have conquered it all. This International Women’s Day, we’re following the journeys of these trailblazers, who are switching up the landscape of extreme sports, one extraordinary accolade at a time. By Eshita Srinivas
Every day, several women across the country work towards pushing the scope of what’s possible in the largely male-dominated realm of extreme sports. A large part of their journeys has involved battling countless injuries, juggling various responsibilities, overcoming financial difficulties, and dodging gender-based biases. Naturally, each of them has an inspiring story to tell. From racecar drivers to mountaineers, we’re tipping our hats to these forces of nature this International Women’s Day.
Indian women adventurers celebrated for their contribution to extreme sports
Mira Erda
View this post on Instagram
India’s foremost female open-wheel racer Mira Erda first began racing when she was nine. Her journey with the sport took off after 25 years of training with the JK Tyre National Karting Championship, her first race. She eventually shifted to racing the Formula LGB class of race cars, the youngest female driver in 2014 and switched to the JK Euro Series in 2017, where she was the first and only Indian woman to participate.
In 2011 she had her first podiums and race wins. She later shifted to racing the Formula LGB class of race cars in 2014 as the youngest female driver. In 2016, she was awarded the title of Formula 4 Rookie Champion of the Year and honoured with the Outstanding Woman in Motorsports award by the FMSCI, the governing body for motorsports in India. She then leapt the 2017 JK Euro Series, where she became the first and only Indian woman to participate, and in 2019, she won her first international podium by finishing first in round 2 of the FIA Formula 4 SEA Championship. The celebrated racer has established a training academy in her hometown to support young women and aspiring racers along their motorsport journey.
Sneha Sharma
View this post on Instagram
Passion for racing and flying drove Sneha Sharma to secure her licences for both but along the way, she had to battle societal pressure and her family’s concerns regarding her choice of an unconventional career path. She clocked the fastest lap time during her first time go-karting at 14 and began spending all her pocket money on the opportunity to do a few laps. Eventually, she convinced a few mechanics to teach her the basics like cornering and braking, going on to compete in small championships around the country.
Upon the advice of former racer Rayomand Banajee at one such event, she graduated to a fully-professional series. Sharma would often have to sneak around her parents to go racing since they thought it was too dangerous a career for her and juggled flying lessons with racing by carrying her books to competitions. For several years, she worked part-time at racing tracks as a mechanic, working on engines and unloading equipment. In 2009, after all of that toil, she earned a podium finish in the National Karting Championship. In 2010, she raced in the Volkswagen Polo Cup, followed by the Toyota Etios series. She then earned a top-five finish in the Mercedes young driver star programme. She then made it to her first formula race in 2013, coming in fourth. Today, she competes in the international Formula 4 championships, backed by JK Tyres. IndiGo airlines, with whom she flies the Airbus a320 for six days a month, is also a sponsor.
Aishwarya Pissay
View this post on Instagram
A circuit and off-road motorcycle racer, Aishwarya Pissay became the first-ever Indian motorsports athlete to win a world title at the FIM Bajas World Cup. She’s won several national rally titles as well. The journey for her has been bumpy, with months of rehab after a series of wrist fractures taking her out of the game for a bit.
However, the adventurer is now back in action and believes in regular training and have a good bike to train at, both of which are taken care of by the motor company (and her sponsor), TVS. Pissay has noted in the past that participation in the sport from women, although currently low, is slowly improving. Many attribute this to Pissay herself, who’s become a role model for women who are keen on taking up bike racing themselves.
Kalyani Poetkar
View this post on Instagram
Known as India’s fastest woman motorcycle racer, Kalyani Poetkar completed a lap on the Buddh International Circuit in just 2.08 minutes, breaking her own previous record of 2.16 minutes atop a Ducati Panigale V4 superbike. She first discovered her passion for the sport when she was nine and was introduced to the world of adventure sports by her family, who took her paragliding and skiing. Her father then taught her to ride his Yamaha RX100 and gifted her a Yamaha FZ 150 after her board exams in class 12.
Poetkar eventually trained at the California SuperBiking school in 2017, her first race being in the JK Tyres Superbike cup. Despite being on the receiving end of judgemental comments, she kept her eye on the prize and strengthened her position in the male-dominated sport by representing India at various competitions in Thailand and Taiwan. She was also recognised in the Outstanding Women in Motorsports category by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.
Alisha Abdullah
View this post on Instagram
Indian racing driver and the country’s first female national racing champion, Alisha Abdulla was also the first woman to be awarded the President’s Award in motorsports. Her zeal for adventure came about at the age of eight when she would accompany her seven-time national racing champion father to the racetracks. She inherited his work ethic, skill with machines, and never-say-die attitude, her first win coming in when she was just 10. At 13, she won the MRF National Go-Karting Championship and won the Best Novice Award at the national-level formula car racing event in the open class.
Since then, she’s won several podium finishes and has been dominating the world of motorsports, going out of action in between due to a difficult ankle injury that needed surgery. To further the sport and encourage women to take it up, the racer abandoned her plans to race internationally and set up the Alisha Abdullah Racing Academy, which now helps women motorsports enthusiasts along their journey.
Prerna Dangi
View this post on Instagram
From mountains to frozen waterfalls, this Uttarakhand native has conquered it all. Her accomplishments include scaling Denali, the highest peak in North America without a guide and has explored several other peaks across the world. Closer home, she’s been working towards furthering the climbing culture, encouraging women to take up the sport through the organisation Climb Like A Woman. Based out of Delhi, she currently works as a guide and her focus is on conquering the Himalayas.
Priyanka Mohite
View this post on Instagram
Mountaineer, dancer and research associate Priyanka Mohite has conquered the world’s highest peaks including Everest. She’s also scaled other noteworthy vertical formations like Mount Annapurna, Makalu, Menthosa, Lhotse, and Kilimanjaro A recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, she trains regularly to keep up with the demands of the adventure sport and enjoys nature treks when she’s got time to herself.
Gowri Varanashi
View this post on Instagram
An adventure enthusiast since quite young, Gowri Varanashi made headlines in 2018 when she became the first Indian woman to conquer the French Indian Masala climbing route in Badami, the country’s hotspot for climbing. The steep surfaces make the route quite challenging for even experienced climbers, and Gowri, who was then an amateur climber with experience on terrains in the USA, dominated it. She also noted that the field was dominated by men, with rarely any women on the scene. The motivation to change this led her to organise India’s first all-women outdoor climbing event called Climb Like A Woman (CLAW), which took place in Hampi in 2018 and was attended by 30 women. Today she’s an avid wildlife conservationist, photographer, and mentor to young women looking to learn how to climb.
Aanchal Thakur
View this post on Instagram
Indian female alpine skier Aanchal Thakur has won many laurels for the country. Her first medal, a bronze at the 2018 Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup in Turkey was also India’s first-ever international skiing medal. Her bronze in 2021 at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Skiing Competition in Montenegro was India’s second international skiing medal. With this, she holds the title of the only Indian to win two skiing medals internationally.
The journey to international victories began quite young for the Burua native, which is a town in Manali that remains frozen for long periods of time. Thakur began visiting tourist skiing centres often, learning the ropes at the age of nine from her father. Hira Lal, a former alpine skier and Olympian, later honed her skills. Thakur has also participated in the 2012 Youth Winter Olympics in the past. Now, she focuses on participating in as many events as she can to further her skills.
Aarathy Kasturiraj
View this post on Instagram
A skating career that began at the age of seven soon blossomed into a whopping 130 medals, including 111 gold, 11 silver, and 8 bronze for Aarthy Kasturiraj. Having competed in several national and international events, she’s dominated the worlds of ice skating and inline skating and balances a demanding MBBS curriculum with her sports career. One of her biggest achievements is being the first skater from India to rank at number 2 in the 500 metres as well as number 3 in the point to point race at the European Cup Inline Speed Skating event in Belgium.
Rinzing Doma Bhutia
View this post on Instagram
The only woman to have represented India at the Pre-Paragliding World Cup in Bir Billing, Rinzing Doma Bhutia is a trailblazer. She doesn’t own her own paraglider and borrowed one from a friend for the shoot of Project Wild Women, a film on Indian women adventurers, for which she flew from South Sikkim to East Sikkim. The journey to this point involved a lot of nagging and convincing on Bhutia’s part, whose family wasn’t too keen on her taking up the sport.
She first discovered her love for paragliding when she attended a course on it in 2009, after which she began training regularly. In 2010, she took up an advanced course and began competing in national and state-level competitions. Lack of funds and equipment almost led to her quitting the profession but she persevered, training in Nepal for a while before returning to Sikkim to work as a paragliding pilot. She’s keen on furthering the sport in her region, especially amongst women.
Ishita Malviya
View this post on Instagram
India’s first female surfer Ishita Malviya was born and raised in Mumbai and was always keen on travelling to California and learning surfing. While studying journalism in 2007, she realised that dream and sold all her possessions to buy her first surfboard. When she turned 22, she moved to a fishing city and founded The Shaka Surf Club, India’s premier surf school. Over the course of her journey, she’s found herself in the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list. Today, she’s pushing for women to break out of traditions and take up surfing, guiding many through the process.
Anissa Lamare
View this post on Instagram
Anissa Lamare took to cycling at a young age, pedalling around her neighbourhood in Meghalaya for hours. This involved going through forests and their rocky terrain, which thrilled her. Her childhood hobby foreshadowed her future of being India’s only woman mountain biker and downhill racer. She’s often the only woman in competitions and races with men, having challenged herself at competitions in Nagaland, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Pune, and more. She often declares that she rides like a girl, pushing for more women to take up the sport.
Namita Chandel
View this post on Instagram
Canoeing isn’t all that popular a sport in India and neither is kayaking. The former was recently introduced to the Olympics in the 2020 Tokyo Games. And among the many canoeists looking to make it to the event before it got postponed was Namita Chandel. Raised in a small town in Madhya Pradesh, Chandel began canoeing when she was 15 after her mother came across an advertisement for a canoeing academy next to their home in the newspaper and encouraged her to join.
The young girl, who had to cross a river to get to school, was unafraid of the water and took to the sport quickly. Soon she represented India in the 2014 Asian Games and won her first international medal for the country in 2015, at the Asian Canoe Boat and Dragon Championship which was held in Indonesia. She continues to train for future events, working through the setback caused over the pandemic and serves as an inspiration to many young women who’d like to take up the sport.
Shital Mahajan
View this post on Instagram
Known as the jump queen, Shital Mahajan is a skydiver and the holder of six world records as well as 18 national records. The first woman to have executed a parachute jump without any training, her free fall jump from 2.400 feet, without trials over the North Pole in negative 37 degrees weather earned her the Padma Shri in 2011. She later went on to become the first Indian civilian woman to be a high altitude, low opening jumper (HALO) by diving from 30,500 feet in negative 35 degrees celsius, her free fall lasting about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Now, she continues to train and looks forward to her next adventurous escapable.
Feature and hero image: Kalyani Potekar
Related: International Women’s Day: 10 Womens’ Travel Groups For Your Next Trip!
