From Batamaloo to the Podium: The Icestock Journey of Faheem Masood Shah
There are athletes who chase medals, and there are athletes who build a movement. In Jammu & Kashmir, Faheem Masood Shah has quietly become both.
Faheem's latest outing came at the Himadari Ice Rink in Dehradun, an international-standard facility that hosted a national IcestockSport tournament featuring squads from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Goa, Uttarakhand, Delhi and other states. Leading Jammu & Kashmir as captain, Faheem returned home with two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze — a result that surprised no one who has followed his decade-long career on the ice.
Born in 1992 in Batamaloo, Srinagar, Faheem's introduction to competitive sport had nothing to do with ice. Football, cricket, rugby and athletics filled his childhood, sharpening the reflexes and competitive instinct that would later define his icestock game. It was during a snow rugby event in Gulmarg in 2014 that he first picked up an icestock — handed to him, almost by chance, by Manfred Schafer, then head of the International Federation of IcestockSport. His first throw hit the target. He has barely stopped since.
What followed was over a decade of steady, often unglamorous graft: training on poorly maintained ice, competing with borrowed gear, and traveling to international meets on shoestring budgets, all in a country where winter sports infrastructure remains thin, and in a region where it is thinner still.
The results, however, tell their own story. Faheem has represented India in more than 200 international matches and picked up medals across three continents. A career highlight came at the 2025 World Icestock Championship in Kapfenberg & Stanz, Austria, where he helped India to a team bronze medal and a fourth-place finish in Team Long Distance, lifting India to a Top-7 world ranking in the Team Game category — one of the strongest results posted by an Indian side at that level.
Away from the rink, Faheem has built an equally serious second career. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering and a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, has worked as a programmer and certified UX designer, and is an independent researcher with contributions to published research. Few of his rivals on the ice, in India or abroad, carry a resume quite like it.
Yet those who know him say it is his work off the rink that matters most to him. Through the Vaadi E Kashmir Foundation, Faheem is involved in youth development, digital literacy and community sports programmes across the Valley, and is a familiar sight coaching children on makeshift rinks after his own competitions wrap up. Kids in Gulmarg and Srinagar follow his results closely; for many, he has become proof that a path exists — even from a region with little winter sports tradition and even less support.
"We're not that far behind," Faheem has said of India's standing in the sport. "We just need people to believe in us."
With the Dehradun tournament now added to an already long list of national titles, Faheem's ambitions have not slowed. The European Championships are next on his calendar, with Olympic qualification the ultimate target — a goal he has framed not as a personal milestone, but as a message to "every kid who thinks they can't make it because they're from Kashmir."
Career Tournament Record
Year
Event
Level
Location
Result
2014
1st National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold
2015
2nd National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver
2016
3rd National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver, Silver
2017
4th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Silver
2018
5th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver
2018
12th Ice Stock Sport World Cup
World Championship
Austria
10th Place
2019
6th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze
2019
International Ice Stock Sport Cup
International
China
5th Place
2020
13th Ice Stock Sport World Championship
World Championship
Regen, Bavaria, Germany
7th Place
2021
7th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver
2021
Summer National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
SKISC, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver
2022
8th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver
2022
14th Ice Stock Sport World Championship
World Championship
Ritten, Italy
7th Place
2023
9th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Bronze
2023
3rd Khelo India National Winter Games
—
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze
2023
2nd Summer National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze, Bronze
2024
10th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver
2024
3rd National Ice Stock Sport Summer Championship
National
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Silver, Silver
2025
11th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze
2025
15th Ice Stock Sport World Championship
World Championship
Kapfenberg & Stanz, Austria
Bronze
2025
National Summer Ice Stock Sport Tournament
National
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Gold, Silver
2026
12th National Ice Stock Sport Championship
National
Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver
2026
National Ice Stock Sport Tournament
National
Himadari Ice Rink, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze
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53 min ago
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