Girls for Gold programme strives to empower young women athletes in India
Girls for Gold—a collaborative initiative by Infosys Foundation and GoSports Foundation—aims to build a holistic ecosystem for junior and emerging women athletes in the sporting disciplines of shooting, boxing, weightlifting, table tennis, and badminton.
The auditorium was brightly lit with the passion of more than a dozen young girls who had gathered for the launch of the ‘Girls for Gold’ programme in Bengaluru.
Their eyes twinkled with excitement and determination, as they admired the sports champions—including former national table tennis champion B Bhuvaneswari and boxing champion MC Mary Kom, who were in attendance at the inauguration.
Their body language exuded their dream of winning gold medals and bringing glory to their country.
The Girls for Gold programme is a collaborative initiative by Infosys Foundation and GoSports Foundation that aims to build a holistic ecosystem for junior and emerging women athletes between the ages of 13 and 19 in five sporting disciplines—shooting, boxing, weightlifting, table tennis and badminton.
“The holistic model of the Girls for Gold program builds the ecosystem by investing in human and institutional capacity and creating talent pathways for future generations,” said Deepthi Bopaiah, CEO GoSports Foundation.
“We are confident that this unique programme will impact the lives and careers of women athletes we will support and, more broadly, Indian sport.”
Bopaiah explained that, out of 18 sports, only five sports have been chosen as the champions in these particular fields had already established academies, and there has been an inconsistency in the number of women players winning medals in these sports.
The GoSports organisation aims to add more sports during the later phases of the programme.
Towards a systemic change in sports
After three months of research and vigorous fieldwork, five academies have been inducted into the programme. They are Lakshya Shooting Club in Mumbai, Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation in Imphal, Sathish Sivalingam Weightlifting Foundation in Vellore, Raman TT High-Performance Centre in Chennai, and Yadav Pro Badminton Academy in Bengaluru.
Most of these academies began as passion projects but they lacked infrastructure and financial resources. Hence, the Go for Gold programme will provide training, financial help, and other necessary interventions to athletes. It will also focus on upskilling coaches through certification programmes and provide academies with the requisite infrastructure.
“Through his programme, we are trying to bring a systemic change in the field of sports by bringing in a 360-degree focus on all aspects, which involves shortlisting women athletes, building a pipeline of qualified and capable coaches, balancing the athletes’ nutrition, physiotherapy, and tech-enabling the identified academies to enhance the training process,” said Sumit Virmani, Trustee, Infosys Foundation.
Calling technology “a crucial part” of sports, Virmani pointed out that the programme includes video analytics and other AI-based tools to help athletes focus on the finer aspects of their game and provide them with a more detailed understanding of their performance and areas for improvement.
Chronicling her struggles as a woman athlete, winner of six world championships, Mary Kom said, “When I started playing, there was no infrastructure and facilities. Women’s boxing was not even considered a sport. However, I battled all those notions to be where I am.”
She believes that, nowadays, athletes have more access to training and better facilities.
Kom also thinks it is her responsibility to encourage more women to participate in sports. However, she acknowledges that this requires a collective effort and cannot be achieved alone.
“I am happy that I am part of this programme as, through this, we can together unleash the athletes in these girls,” she said.
Kom advised the young women athletes at the event to stay humble. She said, “I am a daughter, a wife, a mother but, above all, I am a woman who comes from a humble background, and that has always kept me the same, no matter how many medals I win.”
Bopaiah of GoSports believes that although there has been a gradual rise in women’s participation in sports, there is still a long road ahead.
Equating the life of an athlete to that of “tapas”, Sudha Murty, an educator and author, encouraged the young girls by saying, “The road ahead will be full of thorns, hard work, and lost battles, but all this will make you win wars one day.”
Edited by Swetha Kannan
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