“I had quit sports for whatever reasons back in the day. Then my brother took up floorball. It wasn’t a popular sport in India and it isn’t one even today.  Either way, I started playing it around five years back.”

“I remember this one incident when I was hospitalized and I was in the ICU. I had my athletics meet the next day and I cried so much because I wanted to be there to participate. My parents had pushed me so much to get into sports and I really didn’t want to let them down. So, I made sure I went to that meet and I came in third place!”

“The school and college you study in has a 100 percent impact on whether or not you make it to the next level in whatever sport you play. I was lucky enough to be studying in such institutions who give their students the freedom and say ‘go play and make us proud’ or else it is very different.”

“This sport is not funded by the government and we are supposed to spend our own money to go and play nationals including travel and registration. Our coach Prijo Johnny has been of amazing support and has faith in me. The best memory I’ve got till date is when I represented India in Asia Oceania Floorball Cup in 2017. I am Arpitha Venugopal.”