~The brand will work with sports and esports athletes to help them by providing training facilities, nutrition, and guidance needed to succeed. ~

Sportskeeda, one of the fastest-growing global sports and esports media platforms is embarking on a new journey to support India’s best upcoming talent through its newly launched CSR initiative “Heroes of Tomorrow”. Sportskeeda’s commitment to the development of sports talent at grassroots levels is aimed at fueling the next generation of sports icons that will emerge from India, by providing them with training, facilities, support and motivation needed to succeed.

A study by Nair and Bagchi (2020), titled “Dropout from competitive sports”, shows that most athletes in India drop out for a number of reasons including no longer being supported by friends or parents, having skill deficiencies, not receiving enough recognition or awards, and not being as good as they wanted to be are some of the main reasons for athletes dropping out. The study recommends a structured all-inclusive program from high school to college and afterward where athletes are given proper physiological training and monitored for continued participation. This will result in lesser dropouts.

Sportskeeda has tied up with foundations such as Anju Bobby Sports Foundation which is an initiative of India’s former star athlete Anju Bobby George and Nurturing Excellence in Sports Trust (NEST) which was started by Anglian Medal Hunt. Both of these organizations are revered by the nation for producing some of the finest athletes that the country has seen and is also helping cultivate talent from across India and have already produced a few star athletes like Harmilan Bains, Deepak Punia, Shiali Singh, and several others.

Athletes like Harmilan Bains belong to families full of sporting personalities. This meant that she was always expected to outperform her siblings and relatives. However, she still found it hard to find the right kind of training facilities in her hometown.  Harmilan, a girl who is challenging the norms again, is training hard for the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and World Championships. She also aims to beat her own National record and create an international record in the next 2 years.

The lack of quality sports infrastructure is one of the main reasons several athletes discontinue sports and look for alternatives to sustain their lives. The “Heroes of Tomorrow” initiative is helping these foundations and athletes be able to access the highest quality of training, coaching, infrastructure, diet, and equipment needed to keep up with the best athletes at the top and compete at international events.

Highlighting the vision of this initiative Ajay Pratap Singh, COO, Sportskeeda said, “We at Sportskeeda have been tracking sports for the past decade and are happy to see initiatives taken by the government to actively encourage the youth to take up sports. The government has announced the launch of 1000 Khelo India centers and has also recognized 236 sports academies under its Khelo India program.

We want to contribute to the cause and it brings us immense joy to be able to directly support the growth of these brilliant young athletes while doing our bit to build the sports and esports ecosystem in India. With the ‘Heroes of Tomorrow’ initiative, we share the same vision that some of our top upcoming athletes do, to put India on the global map slowly but steadily.”

Speaking on the tie-up Anju Bobby George, Chairman & Senior Coach at Anju Bobby Sports Foundation said, “Most of our promising athletes do not come from a privileged background where they can afford top coaches, training equipment etc. The Anju Bobby George Foundation is dedicated to changing this for Indian budding athletes, and Sportskeeda will enable us to continue shaping this cause. We are hopeful, Sportskeeda’s initiative will inspire others to follow its lead and we can support and nurture more and more talented athletes.”

With this initiative, Sportskeeda is looking forward to helping more and more athletes and foundations that support them, through its CSR initiatives to give back to the community.