As the first World Yogasana Championship got into full swing, I made my way to the arena wondering what angle I would take for a feature on the tournament.
After spending some time understanding how yoga has evolved into a competitive sport and the technicalities involved in judging it, I realised the story needed to be about something else.
My first thought was to explain the events and the intensity of the competition. But the task ahead of me seemed tougher than the asanas being performed on stage with remarkable precision.
With close to 78 countries participating and battling for medals, it was never going to be easy to keep track of the action across six age categories and multiple disciplines.
As I moved from one mat to another, trying to absorb everything happening around me, one moment quickly caught my attention.
A rhythmic pair event featuring athletes from Sudan was underway. While the athletes performed on stage, their coaches started dancing off it. Soon enough, athletes from different countries joined in and what began as a competition suddenly looked more like a celebration.
One of those dancing off the stage was Alan Rakhman, the captain of the Uzbekistan team. He was hard to miss throughout the event, constantly cheering on young competitors regardless of which country they represented.
When I caught up with him and asked why he wasn’t looking at others as rivals, his answer was simple.
“This isn’t a sport for me, it’s my lifestyle,” said Alan to India Today.
Suddenly, I started noticing how athletes were looking out for one another.
Regardless of age, nationality or gender, everyone seemed invested in helping each other perfect their moves, improve their asanas or even work on something as simple as their breathing.
It felt like I had stumbled upon the very essence of the sport.
COLOUR OF THE FLAG DOESN’T MATTER
Usually, in any sporting competition, there is a sense of rivalry between athletes.
After all, you are representing your country on a big stage and fighting to stand on the top step of the podium.
However, that seemed to be missing here.
Looking for a deeper understanding of this mindset, I turned to Indian team captains Anurag Malik and Aarti Pal.
Anurag, a sub-inspector in Uttar Pradesh Police, has been practising yoga since 2005. For him, the mentality is deeply rooted in the philosophy of the sport itself.
“These are the things that Yog teaches us. We should help others.”
“In our asanas, I would also like to tell you that all our gurus teach us one thing. We prepare an asana according to the judging points, but they teach us to see where we were two years ago and how we were performing that asana then, and how many points we have improved today.”
“Similarly, if a new person is connected with Yogasana, we should tell them the correct alignment and the scoring points. If their asana improves, then according to the effort they put in and the time they spend, gradually the finishing will keep improving,” said Anurag.
Aarti echoed the same sentiment, saying yoga teaches people not to see anyone as their rival, but rather as part of one large family.
For her, the real competition is not against another athlete but against one’s own limitations.
“Here we, the athletes, are not actually the opponents of each other. We are not pratiyogi in that sense. We have the competition from our own limitations.”
“We are conquering our limitations. We are trying to give our best. We are trying to bring out our best. So we are not opponents of each other. We are a family. It’s a yoga family. It’s a global family,” said Aarti.
To understand whether this feeling extended beyond the Indian contingent, I decided to add some international perspective to the story.
That led me to Argentina’s Nabila Sol Barazza.
Nabila became one of the stars of the event after it emerged that she comes from the same village as football icon Lionel Messi. Her admiration for Virat Kohli also caught the attention of fans.
On the mat, however, she made her mark by winning five medals, including two golds, in a tournament largely dominated by the Indian contingent.
Yet her outlook was no different.
For Nabila, Yogasana is about bringing people together and celebrating everyone’s achievements.
“It’s more of a community, more than competition. Yoga always looks for the union. So we are supporting each other a lot. And yeah, I don’t feel like it’s a competition with others.”
“If not, it’s just competition with me, with my work that I’m constantly doing. So we try to support each other because we know how hard it is to get here, how much they work to be here. So we are proud of each and every athlete,” said Nabila.
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER
Team USA provided another fascinating storyline.
The American contingent featured athletes from vastly different age groups, and they enjoyed a respectable campaign, winning one gold medal and three bronze medals by the penultimate day of competition.
One athlete who immediately caught my attention was gold medallist Kemi Blake.
As she proudly wore the red and blue colours of Team USA, I was surprised to learn that she was 45 years old.
Kemi’s journey into yoga began through her fascination with contortion and circus performance. Over the last one-and-a-half years, she has been chasing a dream that many athletes at the championship share.
“I will say this honestly, I honestly want this to be in the Olympics. That is my true desire,” said Kemi.
Then there was Veronica Vega.
At just 11 years old, she was shy but already dreaming big.
Speaking to her, I realised that what attracted her to Yogasana was not medals or fame, but the people involved in it.
“What makes me fall in love with it is seeing all the different ages and all the different countries and states that like to compete and that are competing. It’s really heartwarming,” said Veronica.
And that was another aspect of Yogasana that stayed with me.
Age never seems to define your place in the sport.
Even a 45-year-old athlete isn’t viewed as a veteran.
FAMILY BOND
It wasn’t difficult to see how proud Kimani Blake was of her mother’s achievements.
But Kimani had her own reason to smile as well. Her bronze medal meant that she and Kemi became a medal-winning mother-daughter duo at the event.
A dancer by background, Kimani took up Yogasana simply because she wanted to accompany her mother to Ahmedabad.
“When she told me she was coming to India for this championship, I was like, ‘wait, pause’ because I didn’t want to be by myself at home really.”
“So I asked to come with her and she was like, yes.”
“So I essentially learned yoga to be in this championship so I can travel and experience the beautiful competition because it’s just so nice. The setting, the people here, they’re very sweet and I’m really glad I came,” said Kimani.
Later, I met Alan again, this time with his father Kamal.
I remembered Alan describing him as his inspiration.
But learning that Kamal was also a competitor—and a medallist—at the World Yogasana Championship immediately piqued my interest.
Despite being over 50, Kamal proudly explained how yoga had restored the energy of his younger days.
“Before, in my younger years, I was also a sportsman. Multi-sportsman—table tennis, basketball, boxing, karate—but it was in my youth.”
“After I started my business, I stopped all the sporting activities. But when I was 50, I found some problems with my health. And my wife said, ‘Let’s do yoga.’ We started to do it and during the last eight years in Europe, I became the same as in my youth,” said Kamal.
Speaking about the family’s connection with the sport, Kamal revealed that even his younger son had won a medal.
“I brought two sons here and both of them took medals.”
“He and his little brother. It became a family sport. First, my wife started to do yoga, then she invited me. After that, the kids were looking at us as we do yoga and they said, ‘OK, we also do yoga.'”
“And so we all started,” said Kamal.
As the dust settled on the championship and India swept the medal tally, I realised the story of Yogasana wasn’t really about who stood on top of the podium.
Nor was it about who collected the most medals.
Instead, it was a story about community, family and carrying others forward on your journey.
After all, the Olympic movement is about blending sport with culture and education, creating a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal ethical principles.
And right now, Yogasana seems to be doing exactly that.
– Ends
