Interview: "I am ambitious and I want my country to be ambitious" - Viren Rasquinha, CEO, Olympic Gold Quest

Q: OGQ has recently promised to extend its support to 40 athletes leading up to the 2016 Olympics. Can you explain how OGQ intends to do this?

A: We have actually exceeded the number of athletes we train. Currently, OGQ have 51 athletes being trained, but these include 20 athletes from our OGQ scholarship programme while 31 are senior athletes who we are grooming for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The scholarship programme is a new programme started post London2012 Olympics. Here, we support athletes in the age group of 11 to 17 years. Basically, we are identifying talent at a much younger age so that we can ensure they get the right coaching and grooming that is necessary to bring them up to world class standards.

Again, I believe, if we expect our athletes to win Olympic medals, then our entire support staff must also be world class. We cannot have base levels doctors and trainers if the athletes are world class. Hence I believe one of the most import stakeholders to help us achieve this are the doctors, nutritionists, physios and mental trainers.

Q: Can you name a few potential medal prospects for the 2016 Olympics, who are currently training under OGQ?

A: Yes, Deepika Kumari (Archery), P.V. Sindhu (Badminton), Vikas Gowda (Discus), KT Irfan (Walking) are a few of the athletes who are definite medal prospects for the next Olympics. We also have a few outstanding scholarship athletes like Lakshya Sen 11 years (Badminton), Malaika Goel 15 years (Pistol shooting), Akhil Sheoran 17 years (Rifle Shooting), who also train under us.

Q: Could you please give us an insight into what barriers the organisation faces in their quest for gold?

A: I think there are two big issues that I could highlight. One is the actual availability of world class talent, because you have to understand that the athletes we deal with are athletes who have the potential to win Olympic medals and there is definitely a scarcity of that in India. And the second one is obviously funds, because that is something you can never have enough of. So, these two are the biggest challenges we face.

Q: Even though OGQ is a non-profit organisation, how does it sustain itself in a fiercely competitive industry? How do you gather funds in a business like this to support the athletes and provide them with complete support needed to succeed?

A: As I said earlier, OGQ is a section 25, not for profit organisation, and we raise funds through contributions and donations, and these either come from individuals or corporates. Currently we have 20 corporates donating to the cause, and many individuals. The corporate donations we get are anything between 5 lakhs to 50 lakhs per annum and individual donations range between 100 rupees to 10 lakhs per annum.

The dream of OGQ is to get a million contributors because we believe that it is not only the responsibility of the founders like Prakash Padukone, Geet Sethi or Viren Rasquinha to help India win Olympic medals but should be that of the whole nation because it makes each one of us proud when a medal is won by an athlete of the country.

I think the key to raising funds is the credibility of the people involved. Secondly, it is the accountability and the transparency. We lay a great reporting structure to all our founders and most importantly, it is the performance of OGQ that matters in the end, because 4 of the medals won at 2012 Olympics by Gagan Narang, Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom and Vijay Kumar, was completely supported by OGQ. As you rightly said, it is a very competitive environment

Q: Do you think corporates are doing enough to contribute to the growth of Olympic sports in India? What do you think they can do to help improve the same?

A: I think corporates could do far more. In a way, I’ve know this for so many years and sport is so inefficiently and unprofessionally run in our country, so if we show that professionalism, credibility, transparency and most importantly performance, then I think corporates will definitely come forward to help. But you cannot ask for donations or contributions, or ask corporates to sponsor more sports in India unless you get these things in place. We can definitely engage corporates much more if we are able to meet the above mentioned standards.

Q: What are the targets OGQ have set for themselves for the 2016 Olympics? How many medals are you expecting from the Indian contingent there?

A: As a target, we want at least ten medals to be won by the athletes supported by OGQ. It’s a very steep climb but we need to raise the bar and really push hard. I am ambitious and I want my team to be ambitious and I want this nation to be ambitious. It’s going to be extremely hard but we should not shy away from challenges if we need to achieve our targets.

Note: Readers wanting to make a difference to India’s medal prospects for the future can send their contributions to OGQ here.