Every behemoth started somewhere, though, and for Aditya, his beginnings were in rough-and-tumble of his Pune age-grade and school life.
Early Life
Aditya was introduced to field of sports at just an age of 2. He used to practice athletics on a ground near his home in Kothrud, Pune. A young pupil soon developed a knack for sports and started playing other sports too. Cricket was his first love of sports and used to play regularly and also use to practice cricket with one of his relative who use to play professionally. It was his dream to play cricket for India as he escorted Sachin Tendulkar’s playing style and always tried to replicate him in sports and wanted to be like him.
Till the age of 4 he kept practicing athletics and then simultaneously started learning skating at BSM school ground in the evening . At the same time he also started learning Taekwando In school. From his 1st to 9th standard, he played Taekwando, Speed skating, Roll Ball, Kho-kho and kick boxing at District,State level and National level. With few records and achievements to mention.
Taekwando- Black belt 1 + international certified reference
Kick boxing- 2 times state champion and once runner up.
Speed skating- 20-25 time gold medalist at distance championships, 5-10 times runner up and couple of times finished 3rd at races.
Rollball ( Where it all started )
Aditya start to learn skating in 1998-99. Just after couple of years, he started participating in races and won many tournaments at school and district level.
In 2003, when Rollball was been developed as a sports he use to see his senior practice Rollball after their speed skating practice. The pace, entertainment factor, team play and skills of the sport made him request Raju Dabadhe Sir, the founder of the Rollball game to let him participate in the sport. Seeing Aditya’s performance in other sports and knowing his achievements, he was allowed him to join the game. Initially, he started playing as a goal keeper for couple of years and later played as forward after a district championship where he scored 4 goals in the final and helped win the championship 4-3 from a score . Board of 0-3 down to 4-3 win changed his outlook as a player and hence felt like he unlocked a newer player version of him. Everyone noticed his capabilities and all the coaches and sir there after made him play as an attacker.
Following his guts and improvising on attacking skills, in just 2 state championship he made a record of scoring 29 goals in a single match. Similarly, he was highest goal scorer at consecutive Nationals. Aditya’s meretricious game and performance as an attacker kept on increasing as he was on ladder of apogee.
Aditya got his break into the Indian team at an young age of 16. From then the entry to captaining the Indian team for 2 world champions played 5 world championships and the making records at international level in terms of winning championships, goal scoring , play making records.
Aditya holds the World Record as ‘Highest Goal Scorer’ scoring the maximum number of goals(111) in World Championship; along with the record of scoring the maximum number of goals(33) in a single world event! For his superlative performance at World Championship he has been won ‘Best Player Award’ in year 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Aditya, a four-time world champion and currently the only roll ball player to score more than 100 International goals. He has 122 International goals scored to his credit till today. For his top-hole performance and records he has been nominated for the prestigious ‘Arjuna Award’ for the fifth time in succession.
He is the only Indian to play five world championships. And under his captaincy India has won two World Cup consecutively. The boy Aditya Ganeshwade was taking his first few steps into the extraordinary, and often exasperating, the world of Rollball.