new delhi aanchal thakur has just one wish after becoming the first indian to win an international medal in skiing an end to the governments apathetic attitude towards winter sportsthe response to her bronze medal winning performance in turkey has been overwhelming to say the least she still cant believe that none other than prime minister narendra modi congratulated her on the achievement in a sport that usually begs for attentioni never thought the prime minister would tweet for me it is unreal i just hope we are finally treated at par with athletes of popular sports as of now there has been no support whatsoever from the government aanchal told pti from turkey where she secured the bronze in alpine ejder 3200 cup organised by the federation internationale de ski fisi just want to say that we too are fighting working hard day in and day out for india she saidskiing runs in her blood but it has not been an easy ride thus far for the the 21yearold who is a student of dav college in chandigarhher father roshan thakur who happens to be the secretary at the winter games federation of india always loved skiing and therefore it was natural for his children aanchal and himanshu to pick up the sport at an early agewhile aanchal has grabbed attention now brother himanshu also an alpine skier competed in the sochi winter olympics alongside luger shiva keshavanaanchal says if it was not for the efforts of her father there was no way she could have pursued skiingi have been skiing in europe since i was in seventh grade papa always wanted me to ski and he has been spending out of his pocket all this while without any government help you can imagine how much he has spent on me and my brotherwhat makes it more challenging for us is that it doesnt snow in india for the major part of the year so we have to go out and train she saysher father roshan adds that existing skiing venues in india at gulmarg and auli are the only worldclass during competitions and are not looked after well otherwisethe europeans get to train 10 months in a year where our athletes can do two months at the max considering the huge cost involved in training overseas says roshan who owns apple orchards in manalithe equipment comprising ski boots and clothing too is expensive and costs around rs 45 lakh says aanchalwith a historic medal in the bag the next target for this wushu playerturned skier is the qualification mark for the winter olympics to be held in pyeongchang south korea next monthwhile her brother himanshu is closer to the qualification mark making the winter games cut seems unlikely for aanchalto qualify we need to score less than 140 points in five races and i have not been able to that even in one race yesterday was a very challenging course and even the gold winner could not