VNR VJIET’s Shriya proves determination stumps lack of facilities, bags bronze

An eight-year long hiatus from competitive sport was not able to diminish Shriya Murali’s hunger for success. The 20-year-old returned to competitive ice-skating with a bang. She clinched a bronze medal at the 21st National Ice-Skating Championship 2026 in Dehradun recently.

Telangana skaters strike it rich at the 21st National Ice-Skating meet in Dehradun

Shriya Murali, who is a third-year B.Tech (CSE) student at VNR VJIET, showed that champions are made of sterner stuff. Shriya overcame all handicaps and lack of proper ice-skating facilities to stand on the podium.

Despite not having any dedicated ice-skating infrastructure, Shriya and a couple of others from Telangana clinched a more than a handful of medals – seven medals in all. One can only imagine what the skates could achieve if they were provided with proper infrastructure to train.

Shriya, a former national medalist in ice-skating (gold in 2017 and silver in 2018), is an accomplished roller-skater having won over 100 medals thus far. To fine-tune her skill, Shriya trained on inline skates, so as to mimic ice-skating. The skater hardly practiced 2-3 days before the competition but still managed to win a bronze medal.

Under the guidance of Anup Kumar, Arjuna Awardee for Inline skating, she proved that determination could bridge the gap where infrastructure falls short.