CHENNAI: Aarathy Kasturi Raj is a certified doctor by the day and a flamboyant roller skater by the night. The Chennai-born glided into the limelight after clinching a bronze medal in the women's 3000m relay team event in the Asian Games on Monday.
Aarathy, who did a Masters degree in clinical embryology last year, said it was an arduous challenge to juggle sports and studies. "In 2022, after I finished my Masters, I took a break to train for the Asian Games. Some days, I would still visit the hospital my mum (obstetrician and gynaecologist) owns. The past few years haven't been easy for me; handling both skating and studies was extremely difficult. It wasn't impossible but it wasn't easy either," the 29-year-old said.
Academics was her priority growing up but the passion for skating always drove her. "It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. I didn't have a life in those seven years of school and college; it was just either skating or studying. My family got me through those years when I had some really bad days. They kept motivating me and saying I could handle both well," said Aarathy, who is an infertility specialist.
Aarathy had to prepare for her Masters and give trials for the Asian Games simultaneously. "We started our Asian Games trials in December 2021, while I was still studying. I went through six rounds of trials from the federation. It all went well. And, then last year I got a coach from Belgium named Ferre, who has been working with me along with my coach Sathyamoorthy from Chennai. We worked a lot on my physical strength and the tactical strategies."
It was Aarathy's second appearance in the Asian Games and the medal made it special for her. "The loss in the individual event hurt me. I had trained a lot for that particular event. It just didn't go my way. It was a very strategic race. I think god rewarded me with the medal today for the hard work that I put in," said Aarathy, who finished seventh in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
Aarathy was all of seven when her tryst with skating began. "When mum and I were taking a stroll in a park near my home, I saw some kids skating there. Immediately, I just wanted to try it. My parents always wanted me to pick up some sport. That's how I started skating and in three months I had a club event where I won a gold medal. That's when my parents decided to take this up seriously," said Aarathy, who is married to Tamil Nadu and India 'A' medium-pacer Sandeep Warrier.
Although it is difficult to manage both, Aarathy doesn't want to quit skating to become a practising doctor. "At the moment, I have the Asian Championships in three weeks; I will be focusing on that for now. After that, I will see how it goes. But I am definitely not going to leave the sport yet so I probably will be managing both."
As Aarathy went on her medal hunt, Sandeep, who is currently in Vizag with the Tamil Nadu team for pre-season camp, followed her on television. "Extremely happy for her. Even during the individual event, we were expecting her to win, unfortunately, she missed that. And, winning a medal in the relay was very important because I know the effort that Aarathy and the entire team has put in for the past few months," Warrier said.
