They say life is a great teacher. And 15-year-old Amieyra Khoslla’s experience in finishing sixth in the U17 women’s Speed competition in the World Climbing Youth Championships in Arco, Italy, taught her an invaluable lesson. She learnt she should not doubt her talent or hard work and should fearlessly embrace new opportunities.
“I was doubting myself about going for the World Championship because I believed I wasn’t ready. But after seeing my performance, I feel I shouldn’t underestimate myself and just go and try new experiences,” she tells circleofsport.com. “It’s okay even if I don’t do as well, because there’ll be some competitions with good days and some with bad days.”
Clearly, Amieyra Khoslla’s maturity is beyond her 15 years of age. And when you have conversation with her, you know that it is not practiced or put on but one that she has acquired through experience. When you hear her articulate her thoughts about pressure of expectations, you will agree that she is evolving admirably.
“Before 2023, I didn’t really experience pressure that much because I was still a child. I didn’t really know what it meant, especially during competitions. More recently, I have felt a little more pressure because a lot of people definitely had expectations after I started winning a lot of medals. That’s where pressure came in,” she says.
Her parents, Amrita and Vinay Khosla, Sports Climbing Coach and mentor for over four years Abhishek Mehta, Athletics coach Amit Khanna have helped her get through that pressure by telling her that it’s alright to make mistakes or to not do well in some competitions. “The way they have encouraged me has helped me handle the pressure I face during competitions,” she says.
“Sometimes, I wake up before a competition and meditate to make sure that my mind is focused. And like I don’t think about the medal, the position, and the ranking before competitions to help with pressure,” Amieyra says, indicating that the joy of effort is driving her forward – and faster.
Amieyra Khoslla’s deep-rooted sense of gratitude comes through when she speaks of the close-knit Sports Climbing community in the country. “I feel it has one of the best communities where people support each other a lot. In some sport, people are always criticising others, but in Sports Climbing, there’s nothing like that,” she says.
The teenager, who trains at BoulderBox in Vasant Kunj and Climb Central in Gurugram, was lucky that World-renowned coach Albert Ok also took her under his wings and trained her in Thailand before the World Youth Championships. She isgrateful for the support extended by GoSports Foundation.
She played sport like Football and Tennis before focussing on sprinting and Sports Climbing “I think all the disciplines came together to help me perform even better in Sports Climbing,” says the girl who won a medal on debut in Sports Climbing in 2021 in the Tata Championships in Jamshedpur and finished fifth in the 2024 Asian Championships in Meishan, China.
Amieyra Khoslla candidly recalls events that unfolded in the World Championships. “Going to Arco felt like a great opportunity for me. I wasn’t thinking about the ranking or a medal. I just wanted to give my best,” she says. “During the qualifications, I wasn’t nervous or scared; I was happy. And I was just doing this to get a better exposure into the sports climbing world.”
“So when I saw my first PB, which was 7.74, I was really happy and excited that I could make it through the qualifications, because I wasn’t expecting anything. So when I saw the 7.74, I was really, really happy. And seeing that I came fourth in the qualifications, that really motivated me to do even better in the knockout stage.”
“I was just going for the top 16. I got a time of 7.91 seconds against (Hau Ching Ellie of) Hong Kong, which was also a really good for me because before I went for the World Youth, I was getting sub-8, but it wasn’t extremely consistent. I got it four or five times in training, but not in all my runs. So seeing that I was able to get a seven in so many runs, I was really happy.
“And against (Nuo Chen of) China in the quarterfinals, there were a lot of emotions. And when I tapped the buzzer and I saw that it was not in green. I didn’t care about that because I saw that my time was 7.60 seconds. I was just happy that I was able to get my best in the biggest match,” she says, indicating that her journey will continue to be driven by joy of effort and by learnings.
Photos: Courtesy Ms. Amrita Khosla
