In Gulmarg, Renu Danu first saw snow and didn't touch it. She studied it while standing on the slopes of Gulmarg, with the only sound being the skis slicing across the frozen ground.
The snow was different from what she had seen in films. It didn't matter that she was 26, a constable in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and had grown up in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, where winters were cold but not snowy.
Two years later, Renu stood on the podium with three silver medals around her neck at the Khelo India Winter Games 2026. Her story is not just about winning; it's about achieving a goal.
Back home, her father works as a truck driver. Renu's mother keeps the house tidy. One brother is in the Air Force, and another runs a business. They understand sacrifice and discipline. But they didn't understand skiing. "They know about cricket, football, and volleyball," Renu says with a smile. "They don't understand Nordic skiing or ski mountaineering. They only see videos of me."
In Haldwani, there were no ski tracks or winter sports academies. There were only dusty grounds where she ran races and played kabaddi, unknowingly building the endurance that would one day allow her to cross frozen valleys.
Sports was always an option, but opportunities were limited. Her studies came first, then life, and sports had to wait. In 2021, Renu joined the CRPF as a General Duty Constable. It was meant to be a stable job. But it became something more.
In 2024, Renu was posted to Srinagar. Kashmir introduced her to a new landscape. And then, Gulmarg introduced her to herself. She trained for only one month before competing at the Khelo India Winter Games 2024. She didn't win, and she didn't even come close. But she finished. For many athletes, finishing is normal. For Renu, finishing was a victory.
"I was new," she says. "I didn't know the techniques, but I still completed the races."
In 2025, Renu returned stronger and finished fourth in a Nordic event. However, she won a silver medal in the Ski Mountaineering relay. The same year, she won a gold medal at the National Winter Biathlon Championship in Gulmarg, racing through exhaustion, balancing speed with precision shooting.
Each year, she continued to improve, and the mountain continued to offer her more. This year, she won three silver medals in the women's Nordic 15-km, women's Nordic 1.5-km Sprint, and women's Ski Mountaineering Relay. Three medals, three achievements. This proves that she belongs.
The Army's High Altitude Warfare School became her classroom. Olympian coach Nadeem Iqbal taught her technique, and CRPF coach K Shukla and team manager Magesh K gave her something equally valuable – belief.
"When she came, she knew nothing about winter sports," Shukla says. "But she worked harder than anyone. Her future is bright. I see her at the World Championships, even the Olympics."
Renu already had discipline and endurance, built through childhood games. What she needed was exposure, and now she had it. But she also recognizes what is missing.
"We only get to train for two months a year," Renu says. "Imagine if we could train all year. Imagine how good we could be."
"Artificial snow tracks, better gyms, and year-round training facilities," Renu wants not just for herself, but for everyone who comes after. Her ambitions now extend beyond Gulmarg and India. She wants to compete in FIS races, World Championships, and the Olympics.
The journey from Haldwani to Gulmarg once seemed impossible. Now, Gulmarg is just the beginning. What makes her story powerful is not how quickly she became good, but how late she started. In just two years, she went from never seeing snow to standing on the podium.
"Some girls think winter sports requires too much endurance," she says. "But if I can do this, anyone can." This is not just motivational rhetoric; it's a lived truth.
Silver medals often represent near misses. But on this mountain, silver represents something else – transformation, it means that somewhere in Haldwani, a transporter's daughter has overcome her past, it means that snow, once foreign, now feels like home, it means that India's winter sports story is still being written, and athletes like Renu Danu are holding the pen.
And perhaps, in the near future, when she stands on a different mountain, under the Indian flag, those silver medals will no longer represent arrival; they will represent the beginning.
