Hockey In The Sky

More than 11,000 feet above sea level, a group of 30 women dispersed and set to work on an outdoor ice rink.

Armed with shovels, brooms made of small branches and hockey sticks, they cleared the surface of the New Track after a snowstorm during the night. The undulating green nets, designed to prevent the sun from melting the ice, are loaded with white powder and fall towards the surface of the track. The women pushed and pulled the cloth, using their sticks to hit the net, hoping to dislodge their frozen cargo.

Once the snow cleared, it was time for the national ice hockey team in India to start what the players call "camp."

For 15 days, 20 players of the national team and 10 aspirants trained in Leh, a remote Himalayan city of approximately 31,000 inhabitants in the northernmost state of India. They were preparing for the Challenge Cup of Asia tournament, which was held in Abu Dhabi this week.

They dream of playing in the Olympics, but that is far away. The Challenge Cup, the only international competition in which the team has participated, is for the countries in the lower division of the International Ice Hockey Federation. This year, India joined the Philippines, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

According to the federation, there are 311 ice hockey players in India, the second most populous country in the world, which has only five indoor courts and a sports culture dominated by cricket and field hockey.

The track where the women's national team is practiced is one of the two that opened in the area last year. It was originally built to play cricket in the summer.

"Even our families are like, 'What are you doing? Get a job,' said Diskit Angmo, a 22-year-old girl in the camp. "Sometimes I get frustrated, sometimes I ask myself: 'What the hell?' But then the passion arises."

Most of the national team players are from Leh or other parts of the Ladakh region, which is sometimes called Little Tibet. Only one player, a Mumbai goalkeeper, comes from a big city. The players are between the ages of 15 and 29, and all but two are students.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/sports/hockey/ice-hockey-india.html