Mumbai- Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), one of India’s leading non banking financial services conglomerates, today announced their association with the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Program, executed by GoSports Foundation. The program is aimed at discovering and nurturing India’s next generation of Olympic stars. In addition to offering financial scholarships, the program provides mentorship and quality career guidance to some of India’s most talented athletes. It was first piloted in 2014 with three elite athletes. It was then extended to sixteen more athletes.
This includes sportspersons from different disciplines like Golf, Archery, Fencing, Race walking and Taekwondo to name a few.
Speaking about the initiative Dravid said, “Through my career as a cricketer, I learned a lot from my interactions with senior sportspersons and in 2014, I was happy to be given a chance to interact with 3 talents under this program. The positive results encouraged us to open the program to many more athletes and address their concerns”.
The program seeks to promote the holistic development of the young athletes from different Olympic disciplines. Rahul Dravid and his team of experts will keep a close eye on the development of these athletes. The former Indian cricketer talked about how he believed that during periods like recovering from a physical injury, the athletes require special attention as this can impact their mental state as well.
GoSport’s objective is to make a long term impact on India’s sporting ecosystem. In the run up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, it aims to boost the athlete’s preparation by giving them pro bono access to specialzed career guidance, sports science expertise, injury prevention/management and allied services.
“Personally, through my presence on the program’s advisory board, I look forward to participating actively in the journeys of these immensely talented athletes. I believe they have the potential to inspire the entire nation,” the forty two year old added.
Bhavani Devi is one of the athletes who have been selected for this program this year. The twenty three year old fencer was a silver medalist at the U-23 Asian Championships held in Philippines. Swimmer, Supriya Mondal is another addition to the program. The eighteen year old has already made his mark in the swimming arena after he won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth games in September, 2015.
