’I Want to Win Medals in Asian Championship’: Small Wheels, Huge Ambitions
An exclusive interview of Advika Muthar, the future of Indian Roller Skating. Read the 10 year old sharing her inspiring love for Skating, driven by big dreams.
Advika Muthar, a 10 years old Roller Skater who has made the nation proud with outstandingly bagging 4 Medals (3 Gold and 1 Silver) under the Artistic category in 63rd National Roller Skating Championship 2025, held at Vishakhapatnam. This young skating prodigy has represented Telangana in the championship and carry aspiring ambitions to win medals for India in the coming Asian Championship.
In an exclusive interview with Deccan Chronicle, the India's future skater talks about her journey, challenges and dream to represent the nation in the international diaspora.
How did your skating journey start? How did you enter into Artistic skating ? Did you join any academy for learning?
My skating journey started when I was 8 years old. One day, my dad was going to Decathlon, and I asked to go along. There was a small skating arena there, and I wanted to try it out.
My father took me to the skating ground, and when I saw people skating, I was really intrigued. I asked if I could join them, and that’s how I officially became a skater. I started as a beginner, and later they gave me artistic skates. I learned to use them and eventually became an artistic skater. I joined the Yama Skating Academy for my training.
Except for artistic skating, have you tried any other style? How are they different, and what are your favourite steps?
I have tried inline skating when I was around three years old. In Bangalore, I was learning normal skating on inline wheels. It is basically regular skating, where we don’t do any jumps or spins. We just have to go around cones and stuff. I don’t know much about it, though.
But in artistic skating, we have to do jumps and spins, and there are various categories. In artistic, there is also inline skating, which is the same as quad skating but with jumps. Inline skating has three wheels and quad skating has four wheels.
The categories in inline are pair, couple, solo, and solo dance. Solo dance doesn’t have jumps, but it has footwork and expression. Quad skating has jumps and spins. You can also do the same things on inline skating but with jumps as well. There is artistic inline free skating and Indian artistic skating too.
My favourite steps are the choreography and the part where you train to learn something new. I really enjoy learning and practicing new skills.
What is your regular routine when you go to practice?
I begin with a warm-up, and then I do each jump around 50–55 times, which usually means about 6–7 different jumps. After that, I practice every spin about 50 times. There are many spins. Then I also work on footwork and dance, and I start practicing my programs.
I like the human body a lot, and I enjoy studying it. Science is also very easy and interesting for me to understand.
How do you balance it, the study and the practice?
It’s actually very difficult to balance everything, but I manage because I study every day and every night after coming back from skating. I also go to a gym called Kali Terrain, where I do calisthenics. After that, I come home around 9 o’clock, then I study until 10, and then I go to sleep. As for homework and other assignments, I usually do them at school.
How do you balance the diet and the fitness in the performance?
It's very easy and difficult at the same time. Because you have to be in a very rushed schedule. You can't waste time on anything, and I don't like wasting time either.
What is your favourite food? Do you have the liberty to enjoy fast foods ?
My favourite food is ice cream and soft tea, but I can’t have fast food, maida, and similar things. I eat those only sometimes, like at birthday parties. At home, we don’t have biscuits or bread. We don’t eat maida, junk food, or anything like that, and we don’t order fast food either. I guess, we order that kind of food only about three times a year.
Besides skating, what else are you interested in ?
Right now, I am mostly focused on my studies as well. My other hobbies include drawing, and I like to paint sometimes. I also enjoy writing stories and giving speeches at school. In sports, I am mainly interested in skating, but I am also interested in badminton and swimming.
Recently, at the 63rd National Roller Skating Championship 2025, you won four medals, three gold and one silver. How do you feel about becoming a national champion? What was it like holding the medals and receiving the championship? What was your favourite moment from the championship journey?
It feels really good because all my hard work paid off, and I feel genuinely happy. Holding the medals felt amazing, and I was very proud of myself, especially when everyone was cheering for me. It was a great feeling overall. My favourite moment from the entire national championship journey was after my program was over, when everyone told me I did a great job. Seeing everyone so happy made me feel very happy too, and I felt proud that I performed such a nice skating program.
What were the challenges that you faced during the championship ?
There were a lot of challenges. One of my hardest moments was when I got injured in my leg. Another difficult part of being a skater is improving your weak points, when you are not able to do something, you have to work really hard on it until it improves. That is one of the biggest challenges.
Who is your role model?
My role model is my coach, Anup Kumar Ayyama. He is an Arjuna Awardee and a former world champion in roller skating. He understands everything very clearly and explains things in the simplest way, without making them difficult to understand. He uses simple words, which makes everything easy to follow. He also gives helpful tips, and if we have pain anywhere, he helps us with that too. He supports us in everything, not just in skating, but even in things outside of skating.
So how do you feel when somebody cheers you up or criticises you ?
I know that if I make mistakes, I have to learn from them. So I don’t argue, I just listen and always try to improve myself. The next step is to become better so that I can perform even better next time. Among skaters, I believe learning from mistakes and constantly improving is very important.
Do you really believe that India is doing great in skating? Can you name some?
Yes, everyone is doing really well. We already have many Asian champions, and I hope India will have even more in the future. There are many categories. In artistic skating, especially in the jumps category, there are skaters like Ritvika, Urjit, Jeevan, Shashvika, Satvik, Abhishek, and others.
In dance skating, there are skaters like Benny, Jessie, Arav, Govind, actually, his real name is Saket, but we call him Govind, then there's Venkat, Anvita, Akshara, and many more.
What are your future plans? Do you want to be a national skater representing India?
For my future plans, apart from skating, I would like to become a doctor because I enjoy science and biology. In skating, I aim to become the Asian medallist for world champion. Next year, on January 7, we have the Asian Championship, and I hope I can participate and maybe even win medals.
Would you like anything to share with the aspirants who are trying to come to roller skating ?
I would like to tell everyone that you should always stay dedicated and never give up on your goals.
