Rotarians gain insight into the world of Indian sports and Olympic Gold Quest
Viren Rasquina
Viren Rasquina started his journey in the world of sports as a football player and pursued hockey much later. Rasquina is the former captain of India’s hockey team. He has played more than 180 international matches, including the 2004 Olympics. He was an Arjuna Awardee for Hockey in 2005 and retired from international hockey in 2008. In 2009, Rasquina did his MBA from ISB Hyderabad and soon after, was appointed the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), a not-for-profit organisation that trains Indian athletes for Olympics.
Rasquina began by thanking the Rotary Club of Bombay for their invitation and Rtn. Vita Dani for her kind introduction. He stated that he would like to focus the discussion on the challenges faced by the Indian sports industry today, especially in winning Olympic medals. “It takes six grams of gold to lift the weight of a nation. Six grams is the amount of gold in an Olympic gold medal. I wish that medal was easy to win but we all know India faces plenty of challenges to even qualify for the Olympics. Look at a small country like Hungary, with a population of less than 10 million. Hungary won 17 medals in the London 2012 Olympics, while we were happy with six. Why can a country that is a speck on the world map win so many medals and India, with a broader infrastructural capacity, not win any more than that,” he added.
Rasquina then spoke about how OGQ is working towards changing that. He says, “we have a simple mission – to win Olympic medals. We are so close and yet so far. No one appreciates the efforts of players who secure a good ranking but come back with no medals. In India, the challenges are enormous. I remember when I had just started as a hockey player way back in 2000, our coach was Cedric D’Souza and he had introduced video analysis to prepare us for matches. Video analysis is where you observe the team’s past matches to exploit the weaknesses of the opponents and work on the areas that require improvement. This raises important questions like – are we training right and are we training smart. I have watched the Australian training sessions and they are all about quality training which, unfortunately, we lacked and that lesson has stayed with me. Coaching in Indian is 15 years behind the rest of the world. Even though the game has moved forward in leaps and bounds, today’s players are being taught the same principles that I was! Unless our coaches keep abreast of the latest training techniques, very little will change.”
India is not only suffering in hockey but in every national or international level sport and there is no one answer to why the country always underperforms. Rasquina says, “It is a very hard question to answer as it is a cumulative result of many factors. OGQ currently supports the training of 50 athletes from individual Olympic sports. We ensure that they have the best coaches, training facilities, equipment, world class doctors and everything else to ensure our players get the best athlete support. You have to make the athletes trust you, only then will they share their problems with you, and we try to establish a very healthy friendship with all our players. Post the London 2012 Olympics, the two out of six medals winners who were not a part of OGQ have also joined us for their training.
“The stories behind each of these athletes are equally inspiring and I believe that India truly needs role models across different fields. We have role models in Cricket and Bollywood, but we need positive and strong idols for our youngsters no matter what field they are in,” he added.
On an end note, Rasquina told Rotarians about OGQ’s association with the Indian badminton player, P.V. Sindhu. He said, “P.V. Sindhu is 19 years old and is amongst the top 10 players in the world today, making waves in international badminton events. What many of you may not know is that OGQ has been supporting her since she was 14-years-old. One of the main things we did for her was give her plenty of international exposure, and this has been possible because of the donators of OGQ. We can only be funded through donations and contributions.
“Our true talent is coming from the hinterlands and it is unfortunate that we have not found any kids in the city with a fierce hunger or desire to push themselves in training everyday to be able to win Olympic gold medals. We do what is in our control and leave the rest to the field. There is a lot of talent across sports; we need to give them the right opportunities, the platform and support. We also work very closely with the Sports Ministry and the National Sports Federation because our end goals are the same. We assure that we can inspire all our athletes to win Olympic gold medals and make our nation proud. The potential and possibilities are immense and if we put our mind, heart and soul to it, we can do anything, the choice is always ours”.