Earlier this week, the Athletics Federation of India revealed that around 900 competitors had entered the July 27 Indian Open Athletics meet Sangrur, Punjab. This unprecedented development means that the one-day affair will now have to be extended by another day.
On Friday, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah revealed the central government’s 2036 Olympics roadmap which includes monthly financial assistance of ₹50,000 each to nearly 3,000 athletes under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
While these developments may not be directly to each other, it’s hard to deny that if ever there was a good time to be an athlete in India, now is perhaps it.
Simply put, if an athlete has what it takes and shows tangible potential, government schemes might lend a helping hand. Should the policy machinery turn a blind eye, there is more than just the solitary private entity willing to welcome new young talents with the intent of transforming them into future Olympians.
This, however, is a stark contrast from a few decades ago when the belief was non-existent and excuses for non-performance at the Olympics ranged from woeful infrastructure to weaker genes.
“It’s beautiful to see the development that has happened over the years,” said Tejaswin Shankar, India’s foremost Decathlete, to Read on the sidelines of the Indian Open Athletics meet in Bengaluru last month.
“I didn’t really have any heroes when I was growing up in track and field. Now there are a lot more names, there are lots of passionate kids, they are fired up, they want to see what they can do,” he said.
For Tejaswin, the present-day support system for athletes in India is phenomenal. That said, as a junior athlete growing up in India, the options appeared limited for him.
Back in 2017, after showing early promise in the high jump, all that a young Tejaswin wanted to do was earn admission to a top college in Delhi via the sport quota, graduate, get a job and lead what he called a “happy life with family.”
Such was the thought process of a young athlete, who incidentally was ranked number two in the world U20 high jump charts at the time.
It took the timely intervention of the late Garry Calvert, then coach at the Sports Authority of India, Bangalore, for the enthralling world of US collegiate sports to open up for a young Tejaswin.
While Calvert laid out multiple options, Tejaswin sought out just one name, the legendary coach Cliff Rovelto at Kansas State University.
And when he eventually got there in September 2017, the winds of change began to blow.
“From that point, my life completely turned around,” Tejaswin recalled.
“I had a great experience. The exposure was something different.”
Tejaswin has fond memories of NCAA meets where he watched some of the best in the business.
“I saw Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin, they went to university the same time when I was in the university there. They were breaking records one day and writing exams the next. If they can do it, why not me,” Tejaswin often asked himself.
Those experiences taught him lessons to last a lifetime.
“It really taught me that there is life outside of sport and you can still compete at a very high level and can still go back to class the next day.”
After graduating in 2022 and completing a working stint in the US, Tejaswin is now back in India, and with his newfound perspective he wishes to give back to the present-day Indian youngster.
A venture for India’s youth
The medium is a venture that he has now started with wife Siddhi Hiray and friend Devesh Tamde. The company scouts young Indian athletes and handholds them through the admission process which enables them to obtain a sports scholarship at an American university.
For Siddhi, the venture is a way of ensuring that promising athletes get a chance to realise their potential, while obtaining a university education in parallel – an opportunity that evaded her when she was a young athlete herself.
“We started this because Tejaswin got an opportunity back in 2017 to go to Kansas State on a full scholarship. And I didn’t. I was a sprinter too, a national medalist in U14, U16, U18. U20, but I had no idea what the NCAA was. No one back here knew about it. He had the opportunity, I saw how he did in the US, how the system helped him grow, not just as an athlete, but as an individual,” she recalled.
Siddi recalled how she visited Tejaswin multiple times in the US and after observing the university process closely, fell in love with the system. Now, she wants to ensure that the youngsters of today have the opportunity that she never did.
“I wanted to start something, wanted to give it back to the sport and give an opportunity to all these kids who don’t know about the NCAA and how they can do so much better by being in that system.”
The task at hand now for the trio is to convince youngsters of the magnitude of the opportunity at hand.
“Most of them ask how much money they will be paid,” Siddi said, with a smile.
Another challenge she faces on a regular basis is that young Indian athletes who perform well on the junior circuit hesitate to leave their comfort zone. As an outcome, progress stalls and they fade away in due course.
“They don’t understand that the scholarship is going to cover all their fees for the next four years, which could be close to 2 crores for 4 years. They don’t understand that getting a degree from the US will open many doors.”
While these challenges persist, Siddhi stated that they have experienced success. Triple jumpers Selva Prabhu and Sharvari Parulekar, long jumper Lokesh Sathyanathan and shot putter Krishna Jayasankar, are all high performing NCAA athletes, whose admissions were facilitated by the venture.
For Tejaswin, the venture is a way to give back to Indian sport. A way for creating more world-class athletes and in the process, championing India’s cause on the world stage.
“There’s no reason why we can’t complete with those kids in the US, it just comes down to proper assistance and trusting the system that’s in place.”
