Infosys Foundation collaborates with Gosports Foundation, grants Rs 30 crore for women athletes

The programme will identify and support the progression of Indian women athletes aged 13-19 years through collaborations with sports academies and coaches in India. It will include scholarships, coaching, access to academies, and performance recognition.

The foundation has granted Rs 30 crore towards the programme and will follow a three-pronged approach.

First, it will establish a cohort of women athletes who will be equipped to compete at the international level, helping them build sustainable careers. Secondly, it will build a pipeline of qualified and capable coaches who will help the athletes. Third, it will help the identified academies to make them world-class training centres through technology, the release said.

“Collaborating with GoSports Foundation furthers our long-standing commitment to empower aspiring women athletes with a holistic ecosystem that can help nurture their dreams,” said Sumit Virmani, trustee at Infosys Foundation.

The first cohort of supported academies – ranging across shooting, boxing, weightlifting, table tennis and badminton – are the Lakshya Shooting Club, Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation, Sathish Sivalingam Weightlifting Foundation, Raman TT High Performance Centre and Yadav Pro Badminton Academy.

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A Champions Advisory Board has been created, comprising sports personalities, including former Indian shooter Suma Shirur, former national table tennis champion B Bhuvaneswari, and boxing champion MC Mary Kom.“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,” said Deepthi Bopaiah, chief executive at GoSports Foundation.

The Gosports Foundation is a non-profit organisation working with over 200 Indian athletes, competing across Olympic, Paralympic, Commonwealth, and Asian Games disciplines and was established in 2008.