The new year at Simply Sport began with an action packed quarter with various events and center visits, new team members and eight insightful articles! We also have a new and enhanced website layout. Through the Athlete Career Development Program, we supported 12 athletes this quarter. Our partnership with SAI has taken a step up, where SSF will assist them with infrastructure, sports science and digital technology. We conducted several entertaining and informative live sessions on Instagram, with some of our athletes even appearing in the news! Read more about the impact we have created and how you can support us in our endeavors in the January- March 2022 quarter. |
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Community Development Program |
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In this quarter we were focused on developing new partnerships and doing site visits to different locations where our present and future partners operate. Our visits took us to small villages in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Aurangabad, and Hyderabad. Through these visits, we were able to identify gaps and find strategies to upgrade partner eco-systems in consultation with our partners. With all our partners we will be starting operations based on our analysis in the next quarter. |
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In the Menstruation program, we were able to design and implement a long-term impact study that will help us to note the impact of period tracking on athletes. This study will be carried out with a few athletes and coaches from an academy in Kerala. We will be publishing a small report with our findings of this study after the end of three months. |
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The Volleyball grassroot programs with Bangalore Torpedoes saw resumption of the training which was shut down owing to rising of COVID cases. We were able to help identify a S&C coach to help the development of young players in the area of fitness and recovery. Meanwhile, Rugby League grassroots program is active in Bangalore and Kolkata with weekly sessions for around 50 boys and girls. A day tournament is arranged under the aegis of Australian High Commission in Kolkata during the 3rd week of April. The tournament will be presided by Australian High Commissioner to India and Mr. Ankit Nagori, Founder of Simply Sport and also a big supporter of the Rugby League in India. |
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The Athlete Career Development Program |
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We successfully were able to help 12 athletes graduate through our ACDP program which equipped them in soft skills and computer skills. We are now in the process of placing these athletes in the industry. |
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We have revamped our website this quarter to accommodate new looks and features. The website has been updated with our mission, values, programs, and impact. |
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Women in Sport Research with SAI |
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We have been working on our research paper on women in sport in India for the last six months. This quarter we were able to finish with surveys of more than 200 female athletes and doing visits to various centers we are researching for this project. We have concluded with center visits and in-depth interviews in Manipur and Gandhinagar SAI centers in this quarter. |
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We have signed a year contract with SAI to assist them with infrastructure, sports science and digital technology. This quarter we have officially received the MOU from SAI and now our team is focusing on forming an implementation plan. |
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Republic Day 2022 - Conversation with Tanvie Hans: The Story of Indian Women’s Football |
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On the occasion of Republic Day 2022, we invited Tanvie Hans, an Indian-born British professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Karnataka State team and Parikrama in the Karnataka Women's League. The conversation revolved around the growth of Women’s football in India, gender challenges and how can more girls participate in the sport of football. |
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Instagram live: Conversation with Bangalore Torpedoes & EatFit |
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With our association both with Bangalore Torpedoes and EatFit, we conducted a 3-way interaction as part of the then on-going Prime Volleyball league. Torpedoes players Kyle Friend and Santhilal joined us to discuss the importance of league for the sport of Volleyball, their experience playing in the league and the future of Volleyball sport in India. |
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International Women’s Day - Gender and Sports conversation with Liz Haynes |
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On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we were joined by Liz Haynes. Liz is the founder and director of Transformational Sports an organization that uses sports to build gender equality. The discussion with Liz revolved around Gender and Sports. Liz also provided her experience working with Indian athletes and the overall sports ecosystem. |
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Jungle Crows “Pass For Passion 2022” Fundraising campaign |
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We kickstarted the “Pass For Passion” 2022 fundraising campaign in January. The aim of the campaign is to raise funds to support the children under the wings of the Jungle Crows Foundation to become champions in Sport and Life. Through this campaign, we are targeting to raise 500,000 INR and all the proceedings will go to the beneficiary Foundation. Last year, we raised 12,00,000 INR through the same campaign. |
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Our grassroot league program partners, Bangalore Torpedoes took part in the inaugural edition of the Prime Volleyball League in Hyderabad from Feb 5th- 27th. The team finished 5th in the table with 3 wins and 3 losses. |
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| | Ankita Dhyani- middle and long distance runner won Silver at the All India University Championships held at the KIIT Assam in March 2022 with a time of 34:39.59 in the 10KM event and at the 5KM event got 4th position. At the 25th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Competition held at Kozhikode, Kerala Ankita bagged a Silver medal in 1500m with a new personal best of 4:16.46 and held 6th position at the 5KM with a new personal best of 16:13.54. | | |
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| | Veeravamsham Vaishnavi- The 15 year old got 9th rank at the Asian Sailing Championships held in Abu Dhabi in March 2022 . Vaishnavi got selected for ENP (Emerging Nations Program) in the Junior category by World Sailing . She is one among the six talents identified by the World Sailing for the program globally. | | |
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4. Welcoming new members to the team |
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Rudragouda Patil (Consultant) Rudra is a sports enthusiast from childhood ,played cricket for Karnataka and completed BE in mechanical engineering but always wanted to work in sports so did not attend any placements ,then got in to Sports authority of India and various sports organizations and would like to learn and stay and work in sports. |
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Anoushka Parikh (Intern) Anoushka is a Badmitnon player and has been representing India since 2011. In 2019, she reached her career best world rank of #43 in mixed doubles. Alongside her playing career, Anoushka continued to pursue higher education and has graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor’s in Psychology. A sports lover by nature, Anoushka enjoys writing and is passionate about animals. |
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5. In our Column this Quarter |
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Aditi Mutatkar, our in-house badminton star, shares her view on the pertinent topic of Menstruation and Sports. She highlights the topic of periods, mentioning how female athletes have treated this topic as a taboo because of society. There is an urgent need to start a conversation around this topic not just for the female athletes but also for their male peers and coaches. |
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Urja Mehta, briefly mentions the Novak Djokovic, Australian Open controversy and also provides a compare and contrast with examples of how Federations and Associations have always had a long-looming conflict with elite athletes in the past. |
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Amruta Deshmukh highlights the challenges that athletes world over have faced due to the pandemic and how it has not only affected their performance but also their overall psychological and physiological well-being. She mentions how there is a need for athletes to reboot their mind and regulate their emotions to achieve maximum levels of performance, both on and off the field. |
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Renowned Badminton coach, Balachandran Raman highlights the change in approach towards sports in India over the last few decades, the kind of vision and effort that is still required to inculcate sports in minds of young children which will in turn, uplift sports in India. He mentions how vital is the role of coaches, parents, and most importantly how competition and performance must be treated. |
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| | Sandhya Rai - The rugby international got selected for the Hershey's “Sheroes' ' campaign for the women's day , she was one of the six women’s selected and her image featured in the limited edition of #HerShe chocolate bars and also went live with Femina India to share her inspiring story. | | |
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| | Glad to announce you that Vaishnavi (TAL Sailor) has been selected for World Sailing ENP (emerging nations program) in the Junior cater gory from India. | | |
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Meet Vaishnavi Veeravamsham, a high-spirited and cheerful girl, coming from a marginalized family from Hyderabad. Her father suffered a life trauma illness that forced him to stay indoors, while her mother had to support the family and took up houskeeping job to run the family. Vaishnavi took up the sport of Sailing at the age of 10 and with her hard work coupled with determination, she has come a long way from being unable to handle the boat to be in under-16 at the Nationals. She closed her career in 2021 with a Bronze medal at the 12th Monsoon Regatta 2021 and thereafter moved to the ILCA-6 senior fleet at the age of just 14 years. She recently participated at the Asian Sailing Championships in Abu Dhabi finishing 9th out of 12 sailors with a two-best finish of 7th position each. At just 15 years old, she was also the youngest sailor in her category. She is now training to participate in the Asian Games selection trials in Mumbai in May. If she retains her No.2 ranking she stands a chance to represent India at the Asian Games in September in Hangzhou. Your support will help Vaishnavi train under better conditions with the help of a foreign coach (Miguel from Portugal). The total cost to get her the best expertise coaching and training facilities is accounting to 3,00,000 INR. |
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We are working with foundations and academies to sustain their various sports initiatives in nurturing young sporting talents across various sports. |
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Help support our partner - Jungle Crows Foundation in their humble mission to uplift and empower children from marginalized background through the sport of Rugby. |
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