NEW DELHI: At the National Sports and Adventure Awards distributed on Thursday by the President of India, GoSports Foundation was a recipient of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar under the category of “Identification and nurturing of budding/young talent.”
The Gagan Narang Foundation was also presented with the award under the same category.
The GoSports Foundation is a not-for-profit trust established in 2008 working towards the development of some of India’s most talented emerging and elite athletes, competing in multiple sporting disciplines. Joined by India’s only individual Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, former Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid and All England badminton champion Pullela Gopichand on their board of advisors, their vision of enabling sports excellence is premised on the belief that sporting champions are created when the right talent is provided with the right support at the right time.
Acknowledging the national honour, the foundation’s managing trustee Nandan Kamath said: “Recognition of this sort is an endorsement of the work of every person who has participated in the growth of GoSports Foundation. A National Award is much like a reward from a parent – a mix of both appreciation for what has been done and also encouragement to keep dreaming and growing. It is a very proud moment for all of us, and gives us the confidence and impetus to dream bigger. We are truly grateful for the support of every individual and organisation who has played a role in our journey over the past 11 years.”
Supporting well above 120 athletes from 17 sporting disciplines across able bodied and para sports, GoSports Foundation assists the athletes with a variety of interventions and has a diversified support structure that extends beyond financial aid to include: access to sport science support and expertise, apparel, equipment and gear support, funding for training and competition expenses, education workshops for awareness building, and access to an expert base across all allied fields of sport to allow the creation of a sustainable and effective ecosystem of support around every athlete.
Some of the Foundation’s success stories include: Former badminton world no. 1, Kidambi Srikanth; gymnast and 2016 Rio Olympic finalist Dipa Karmakar; two-time Paralympic Gold medallist and world record holder Devendra Jhajharia; and India’s top male table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
The foundation is the Official Knowledge Partner to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and has also published the official Athlete’s Handbook of the International Shooting Sport Federation. Knowledge Building Initiatives and work in research and advocacy are a key element of the GoSports Foundation’s focus on the development of the sports ecosystem in India.
