Taekwondo was first introduced in India in 1975 but despite the martial art being around for nearly half a century, it isn’t considered a “mainstream” sport by any means. However, taekwondo athletes in the country have been letting their achievements do the talking and are going strength to strength in promoting the sport amongst the masses. Since the last seven years, Peace Taekwondo Academy has been grooming talented athletes at the grassroots to become future champions in the discipline and have made significant strides to achieve their goals.
To know more about Taekwondo in India, Mr. Vinay Kumar Singh, owner of Peace Taekwondo Academy spoke exclusively to SPOGO about the objectives, achievements of the academy, getting support from sports authorities and government, rising stars and the common difficulties faced by athletes pursuing the sport.
Q1) When was this Peace Taekwondo Academy started and how long did it take for the project to gain momentum?
We started Peace Taekwondo Academy in November 2014 at Malviya Nagar, Delhi. We will be celebrating 7 successful years of our existence on the 10th of November next month.
Q2) What are the objectives that the Peace Taekwondo Academy tries to achieve on a long term basis?
Our long term objective, which has been our only objective since inception, is to get an Olympic medal for India in Taekwondo. One of our star athletes, Kashish Malik, was in the National Team for Asian Qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Unfortunately, the Indian Taekwondo Team wasn’t allowed to participate in the Asian Qualifiers because of Covid reasons.
Q3) What would you say are some of the academy's best achievements?
1) Highest World Taekwondo Ranking of 25 achieved by Aman Kadiyan of the academy in the Males, Under 54kg weight category. Result published: 28th October 2021.
Majority of our athletes are top rankers. Details below:
Radha Bhati (All India Rank 1); Sonia Bhardwaj (All India Rank 2) in the Female, under 46kg
Anisha Aswal (All India Rank 1) in the Female, under 49kg
Kashish Malik (All India Rank 1) in the Female, under 57kg
Sonam Rawal (All India Rank 1) in the Female, under 62kg
Aman Kadiyan (All India Rank 1) in the Male, Under 54kg
Shivam Tyagi (All India Rank 3) in the Male, Under 58kg
Shivansh Tyagi (All India Rank 1) in the Male, Under 74kg
2) Aman Kadiyan and Shivam Tyagi represented India in the World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series. This was the first time Indian athletes were representing the nation at the Grand Slam.
3) Quarter finalist at 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, Indonesia. Kashish Malik in the Female, under 57kg
4) Gold & Bronze medal from the 2019 South Asian Games, Kathmandu, Nepal. Gold won by Kashish Malik in the Female, under 57kg and Bronze won by Radha Bhati in the Female, under 46kg.
5) Athletes from the academy have represented India in Asian Championship, Asian Games, South Asian Games, World Universiade, and World Championships.
Q4) Do you get adequate support from other sports authorities and the government?
Majority of the support has come from private bodies and NGOs. Our top athletes are supported by organizations like Go Sports Foundation, Virat Kohli Foundation, Welspun Group, JCB through Lady Bamford Charitable Trust. We also have our own NGO – Peace Sports Trust which supports the athletes. We have officially written to both the Central Government and State Government but there has been no response so far. We are hopeful that with major achievements at International level, the government will reach out to us to extend its support.
Q5) Who are some of your athletes that our audience should look out for in the upcoming competitions?
We have created so many champions in the last so many years in Taekwondo, but Aman Kadiyan, Kashish Malik, Radha Bhati, Sonia, Anisha, Shivam Tyagi, Sonam Rawal are some of our top performers that you should look out for.
Q6) What are the most common difficulties your athletes have faced and how do you help them?
1) Taekwondo is an Olympic Sport but it is still not recognized in the list of priority sports published by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (Government of India). The recognition is long due, the athletes and the entire taekwondo fraternity is at great loss because of this. Their certificate carries no value at government offices.
2) No major championship or league tournaments at National level. If this happens, our athletes will get a lot of exposure.
3) The support system, especially the financial support is almost nonexistent or lacking. Except for a few athletes, the majority are self-funded. Self-funding cannot be a long term solution. Majority of the athletes collapse because of this.
4) Lack of proper infrastructure and training venues.
5) Lack of professionalism at all levels.
6) Rewards and recognition
7) Athletes need support in terms of Sports nutrition, Physiotherapy, Sports Psychology, Video analysis.
We literally have no/zero intervention in what the Government or the national federation is doing to lift the level of the sport in the county. Maybe once we have brought a major medal for India (like an Olympic medal) things will start falling in place. Mary Kom was a five times World Champion still no one knew her. She got one Bronze medal from the London 2012 Olympics and people started recognizing her. Same goes with Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu or any other sports person in India. The national federations (irrespective of who is leading it) must have a national calendar and a roadmap. They must have pre-defined goals and targets they want to achieve over a period of time through the federation or athletes. They must sell their vision and results which is not happening currently.
There is a dearth of quality championships both at the grassroots and at the elite level. The athletes need exposure which they cannot get at their academies alone. The elite athletes and line 2 athletes must also have a proper support system. Right now it is all happening from their own pocket. This is not a self-sustainable model and will collapse in the long run.
The sporting ecosystem, especially that of taekwondo in India must imbibe professionalism and values at the core of whatever they are doing and this should be done at all levels. Whatever is done must be measured. The good initiatives or results must be rewarded and the bad ones must go through a root cause analysis. Everyone from top to bottom must realize that it is a collective and collaborative effort that will yield the result.
Lastly, athletes need to be loved and they must equally spread love and peace through sport.
