No Rivals, Behind the Medals: How Yogasana Became More than the Pursuit of Fame

When the first Yogasana World Championships were in full swing, I made my way to the arena and wondered what angle I would take on the tournament.

After spending some time understanding how yoga has evolved into a competitive sport and the technicalities involved in judging it made me realize that the story had to be about something else.

My first thought was to explain the events and the intensity of the competition. But the task before me seemed more difficult than the asanas performed on stage with remarkable precision.

With nearly 78 countries participating and competing for medals, it’s never been easier to follow the action across six age categories and multiple disciplines.

As I moved from one pad to another trying to absorb everything that was going on around me, one moment quickly caught my attention.

A rhythmic pairs event with athletes from Sudan was in progress. While the athletes performed on the stage, their coaches began to dance from it. Soon, athletes from different countries joined in, and what started as a competition suddenly looked more like a celebration.

One of those who danced off the stage was Alan Rakhman, the captain of the Uzbekistan team. He was hard to miss throughout the event, constantly cheering on the young competitors regardless of which country they were representing. Alan was inspired by his parents to take up yoga World Yogasana Championship

When I caught up with him and asked why he didn’t see others as rivals, his answer was simple.

“This is not a sport for me, it’s my lifestyle,” Alan told India Today.

Suddenly, I began to notice how athletes guard each other.

Regardless of age, nationality, or gender, everyone seemed invested in helping each other perfect their movements, improve their asanas, or even work on something as simple as breathing.

It felt like I had stumbled upon the very essence of the sport.

THE COLOR OF THE FLAG DOESN’T MATTER

Usually, in any sports competition, there is a sense of rivalry between the athletes.

After all, you are representing your country on the big stage and fighting to stand on the top podium.

However, that seemed to be missing here.

Seeking a deeper understanding of this mindset, I turned to Indian team captains Anurag Malik and Aarti Pal.

Anurag, a sub-inspector of police in Uttar Pradesh, has been practicing yoga since 2005. For him, the mentality is deeply rooted in the philosophy of the sport itself.

“These are the things 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 the asana according to the evaluation points, but they teach us to see where we were two years ago and how we did that asana then and how many points we have improved today.” Aarti Pal, captain of the Indian women’s team in action at the championship (Photo: World Yogasana Championship)

“Similarly, if a new person is associated with Yogasana, we should tell them the correct alignment and scoring points. If their asana improves, then according to the effort they put in and the time they spend, the completion will gradually improve,” said Anurag.

Echoing the same sentiment, Aarti said that yoga teaches people not to see anyone as their rival but rather as part of one big family.

For her, real competition is not against another athlete, but against her own limitations.

“Here we athletes are not really adversaries. We are not pratiyogis in that sense. We have competition from our own limitations.”

“We’re conquering our limitations. We’re trying to be the best. We’re trying to be the best. So we’re not against each other. We’re a family. It’s a yoga family. It’s a global family,” Aarti said.

To understand if this feeling extends beyond the Indian contingent, I decided to add some international perspective to the story.

This brings me to Argentina’s Nabila Sol Barazza.

Nabila became one of the stars of the event after it was revealed that she hails from the same village as football icon Lionel Messi. Her admiration for Virat Kohli also caught the attention of fans. Nabila won two gold medals during the tournament (Courtesy: World Yogasana Championship)

However, she made her mark on the mat by winning five medals, including two golds, in a tournament that was largely dominated by the Indian contingent.

Still, her view was no different.

For Nabila, Yogasana is about bringing people together and celebrating everyone’s successes.

“It’s more of a community, more than a competition. Yoga is always looking for unity. So we support each other a lot. And yes, I don’t feel like it’s a competition with others.”

“If not, it’s just a competition with me, with my work that I do all the time. So we try to support each other because we know how hard it is to get here, how hard they work to be here. So we’re proud of every single athlete,” said Nabila.

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

Team USA provided another fascinating story.

The American contingent featured athletes from vastly different age groups and enjoyed a respectable campaign, winning one gold and three bronze medals on the penultimate day of competition.

One athlete that immediately caught my eye was gold medalist Kemi Blake.

As she proudly wore the red and blue colors of Team USA, I was surprised to learn that she was 45 years old.

Kemi’s journey to yoga began with a fascination with twisting and circus performances. For the past year and a half, she has been chasing a dream shared by many athletes at the championship.

“I’ll be honest, I honestly want it to be in the Olympics. That’s my real desire,” Kemi said.

Then there was Veronica Vega.

At just 11 years old, she was shy, but she already had a big dream.

As I talked to her, I realized that what attracted her to Yogasana was not the medals or the fame, but the people involved.

“What makes me fall in love with it is seeing all the different age groups and all the different countries and states that like to compete and that compete. It’s really gratifying,” Veronica said.

And that was another aspect of Yogasana that stayed with me.

Age never seems to define your place in sports.

Even a 45-year-old athlete is not considered a veteran.

FAMILY BOND

It wasn’t hard to see how proud Kimani Blake was of her mother’s accomplishments.

But Kimani also had reason to smile. Her bronze medal meant she and Kemi became the mother-daughter medal duo at the event.

A dancer by birth, Kimani took up yoga 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 really didn’t want to be home alone.

“So I asked to go with her and she said yes.

“So I basically learned yoga to be at this championship, to be able to travel and experience this beautiful competition because it’s just so nice. The environment, the people here are very nice and I’m really glad I came,” said Kimani.

Later I met Alana again, this time with his father Kamal.

I remembered Alan describing him as his inspiration.

But learning that Kamal was also a competitor – and medalist – at the World Yoga Championships immediately piqued my interest. Alan together with his teammates from Uzbekistan at the Yogasana World Championship (Photo Instagram/@yogafederation.uz)

Despite being over 50 years old, Kamal proudly explained how yoga restored the energy of his youth.

“Before, in my younger years, I was also an athlete. Multisport – table tennis, basketball, boxing, karate – but that was in my youth.”

“After I started my business, I stopped all sports activities. But when I was 50, I discovered some health problems. And my wife said, ‘Let’s do yoga.’ We started doing that and over the last eight years in Europe I have become the same as I was in my youth,” said Kamal.

Talking about the family connection with the sport, Kamal revealed that his younger son also won a medal.

“I brought two sons here and they both took medals.

“He and his little brother. It became a family sport. First my wife started doing yoga, then she invited me. Then the kids would look at us doing yoga and say, ‘Okay, we do yoga too.'”

“And so we all started,” Kamal said.

As the dust settled on the championships and India swept the medal tally, I realized that the story of Yogasana is not really about who stands on the podium.

It wasn’t even about who collected the most medals.

Instead, it was a story about community, family, and guiding others on your journey.

After all, the Olympic movement is about intertwining sport with culture and education, creating a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of a good example, social responsibility and respect for universal ethical principles.

And right now, Yogasana seems to be doing just that.

– The end

Published on:

09 Jun 2026 08:44 IST