Rayudu Arun Kumar, a 22-year-old from the port city is an international skater who’s playing for Team India since 2014.

His best rankings in world level are World No.5 and currently ranked Asia No.2. He secured gold and bronze medals recently in the 59th National Roller-Skating championship conducted from 13th - 17th December in Mohali, Punjab.

1. Gold medal - Pair Skating Event
2. Bronze medal - Freestyle Event 
This is his 15th Gold medal and He has been the National Champion for the 15th time. 
Arun Kumar shared a few things about his career, personal life and achievements while in conversation with Hello Vizag.

1) A few things about yourself (education, family)

I am a mechanical engineering student. My father is a retired Executive Director of steel plant, Visakhapatnam. My mother is a home maker. I have a brother who is three years younger to me. He is an engineering student at VIT.

My mother and I are quite similar when it comes to our personalities, we are loud and outgoing although my father and brother are quite different from us, they both are quite introverted people. Despite our busy lives we make time to spend quality time with one another. I feel immense joy in saying that we are a tightly knit family.

2) Explain your national championship win? 

It was a good win. But at the same time, it wasn’t an easy one because the temperature over there was always in single digits whenever we had our competition and it was very hard to skate at such a low temperature as we are not at all used to the cold climatic conditions. And personally, it was very tough for me as I am an asthma patient and when the other skaters are warming up for the competition, I found it difficult even to breathe.

But this is not something new since childhood I always had my national championships in these type of cold climatic conditions in North India. So that experience helped me to adapt to these climatic conditions faster and give my best in the competition

3) How was your journey in skating career? 

My journey with roller-skating has been 19 years and it has been an incredible one. There have been so many uncertainties, struggles and on the other side of it the achievements and the sheer happiness the sport gave me.

Fighting my asthma as a three-year-old was one of my initial struggles. Drawing a line between practicing enough to help me with my condition and making sure it’s not more than something that would hurt me because of my tough condition.

The skating rink where my coach would train me was about 30 kms away from my home and I get trained twice a day. Every day my mother would wake me up at 4 am in the morning to make sure we board the local bus to reach our destination. Travelling about 120 kms everyday made my schedule incredibly hectic at a very young age.

My day would start at 4 am in the morning and end at 10 pm. There are two sides of a coin, it put a lot of pressure on me as I was working so hard, but it helped me push as much as it’s humanly possible to my fullest potential.

4) When does it all start?

My relationship with skating had begun at a very young age. I was introduced to the sport when I was 3 years old. As a child speed thrilled me. While travelling in a car I would look at people moving forward at a pace faster than we can go while showing no sign of running.

It intrigued me. I immediately asked my parents to get me whatever it is that’s making people move that way and my parents enrolled me in a skating academy upon my wishes.

5) Who inspires you? 

Mr. Milka Singh has been a great inspiration for me personally. I have always had tremendous respect for all that he achieved in life. It has been a dream come true to meet someone so significant, who have achieved so much. I feel so grateful to have such a modest soul as my mentor. He has always helped me, guided me when I were to make crucial decisions regarding my sports career and for that I shall forever be grateful.

I fully trust wherever he is, he is in a better place for a soul like that only deserves the best. Needless to mention that without the help of my family and my skating partner, Rokhaiyya Farheen Shaik and coach Akula Pavan Kumar, I would have gotten nowhere.

6) What is your future goal?

My current goal is to do good in the Indian team selection trials for Asian games and get selected for it and participate in the 19th Asian games that is to be conducted in September 2022 and give out my best for the country.