“Skating happened even before I went to school and college. I was maybe three or four years when I decided to do this. My parents and grandmother were athletes and I remember my mother used to go to the stadium and train. I would often go with her and see people skate there”

“Most of my batch mates from school hated me because I went to school whenever I had the time because most of my day would get into training. I would be irregular to class and not complete assignments. It used to be okay but after a while, it takes a toll when even your teachers start hating you. You know the life early morning during school days was me getting up early, training, coming back home, and then rushing to school. Once I go there, I am half drowsy most of my time at school. I was very young for such kind of a schedule but after a certain point of time, you get used to it.”

“I never had a social life during my childhood. I’ve never been to sleepovers, never been to birthday parties. I’ve never done all of these but I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“At the age of 8, I won my first national medal and I felt I matured too early for my age because I saw the wins and losses in sports and whether I liked it or not, I learnt how to get myself up and running again even after a bad tournament. I kind of started using that in my everyday life too whenever I had bad days, I would think what would I have done if I were skating today and this happened and how I would get myself up.”

“I was a lefty and the first coach of mine told me that southpaws can’t skate because while skating you need to bring you left leg in front to give your right leg more power and mine was the opposite. My father said that doesn’t matter who has what, everyone deserves a chance. I am Dhanush Babu.