(Sports news) The Girls for Gold Programme will be developed by the Infosys Foundation in partnership with the GoSports Foundation as a high-performance excellence programme for young and developing female athletes. Infosys Foundation is the charitable and CSR arm of Infosys. Through partnerships with high-potential academies and coaches in India, this programme, which will have an initial term of four years, will identify and support the progression of gifted Indian women athletes between the ages of 13 and 19. The programme will offer coaching, admission to academies, scholarships, and performance rewards.
A three-pronged strategy will be used by the programme. First of all, it will develop a strong group of female athletes who are prepared to compete on a global scale, support them in establishing long-lasting careers, and develop them into role models for the next generation. Second, it will generate a pool of capable coaches who can assist players realise their goals and foster an environment of long-lasting sporting greatness. Thirdly, it will assist in technologically enhancing the picked academies to make them top-notch training facilities.
Five different sports—shooting, boxing, weightlifting, table tennis, and badminton—are represented in the inaugural cohort of funded academies. The academies identified as the inaugural beneficiaries of the program are:
● Lakshya Shooting Club
● Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation
● Sathish Sivalingam Weightlifting Foundation
● Raman TT High-Performance Centre
● Yadav Pro Badminton Academy
As the programme grows, more academies might be considered for support. MC Mary Kom, a former amateur boxing champion and recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, as well as former national table tennis champion B Bhuvaneswari and former Indian shooter Suma Shirur, make up the Champions Advisory Board.
Deepthi Bopaiah, CEO – GoSports Foundation said, “We truly appreciate Infosys Foundation’s commitment to creating cutting-edge avenues for girls and young women to become sporting champions for India. 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. We are confident of the impact that this unique program will have on the lives and careers of women athletes we will support and, more broadly, on Indian sport”
Sumit Virmani, Trustee, Infosys Foundation, said, “At Infosys Foundation, a deep-rooted focus on education and women empowerment have been a key priority over the years. Collaborating with GoSports Foundation furthers this long-standing commitment to empower aspiring women athletes with a holistic ecosystem that can help nurture their dreams. Excellence in sports is a driver of social change and we are confident that this collaboration will help these talented young women realize their potential in sports, in an environment amplified with scientific, and tech-enabled processes.”
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