Olympic Gold Quest: Bridging gaps in quest for glory

Former India hockey captain and 2004 Olympic Games participant Viren Rasquinha said to DNA the other day: "Very happy to say four out of four golds for India (in the ongoing Asian Games in Jakarta) (are) all supported by OGQ."

Bajrang Punia (wrestling, men's 65kg freestyle), Vinesh Phogat (wrestling, women's 60kg freestyle), Saurabh Chaudhary (shooting, men's 10m air pistol) and Rahi Sarnobat (shooting, women's 25m pistol) have made India proud with their achievements in the first week of the Games. They did not have to worry about anything else other than their on-field performance and training leading up to the quadrennial event. OGQ was there to look after their needs as it does for a host of other leading sportspersons.

Rasquinha has completed nine years at OGQ. He is the heart and soul of the foundation that began to support talented athletes in 2007. Ace shooter Gagan Narang, the 2012 London Olympics 10m air rifle bronze medallist, is the first athlete that OGQ began to support. Today, the number of athletes across nine individual Olympic disciplines is in excess of 150 – more than half of them in the age group of 10-19 years with an eye for bagging glory in the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games.

Gun for Olympic glory

"It takes just 6 grams of Gold to lift the worth of a Nation."

That's the catchphrase of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), a non-profit organisation that is made up of eminent sportspersons who have come up the hard way and excelled in their respective sporting fields, and who wanted to make it easier for the current athletes to excel in their careers by giving them the best of facilities.

To lift that six grams of metal, one has to go through a lot of hardships. The path is not always smooth. Besides the hard work the athletes put in, there are various other things including logistics issues, travel, nutrition, physios and trainers including mental trainers, that the talented sportspersons have to worry about to participate in tournaments and excel. So much so that they end up spending more time getting their practices organised, making their visa and travel arrangements, finding sponsors and hiring foreign coaches among other things than actually worrying about their own performance.

It is here that OGQ has made life easier for the sportspersons.

'Plugging in small gaps'

Geet Sethi, nine-time world champion in cue sports, Prakash Padukone, 1980 All England badminton champion, Viswanathan Anand, former world No. 1 and five-time world chess champion, Nitin Bajaj, former TT national champion and Arjuna awardee, are among the directors of this organisation with Rasquinha as its body and soul in his role of director and CEO. There are a host of other directors who hold high positions in leading corporates to get the organisation up and running, and most of them are generous donors for a long-term.

The results are there to see. Athletes supported by OGQ have won a majority of the medals in the last two Olympic Games – 4 (out of India's 6) in 2012 London and 1 (out of 2) in 2016 Rio.

Sethi, the brain behind OGQ along with Padukone, tells DNA that his foundation plugs in small gaps. "The gaps can be sometimes be in millimetres, yet filling such gaps is important. Whatever is provided to athletes by the government, there may still be some gaps. That's what we have been doing very consistently and constantly," Sethi says. "We in India have reached a state where the ecosystem has also improved greatly. Ecosystem in terms of government, money it is providing, the sports federations have become more transparent. If we have specialised training and the best nutritionist for a boxer, for example, it works very well. It begins with identifying the talent and completely supporting it. Federations are doing a lot for athletes. Sometimes, some little gap remains, which is bridged by OGQ."

Rasquinha adds: "We have 11 foreign coaches who are contracted with us either full time or part-time. We provide coaching in India and abroad and ensure the best training facilities. Though most of the training facilities are in India, some athletes are sent abroad. We ensure the best of equipments for the athletes. For example, in a sport like shooting, ammunition testing is complicated and very expensive. We help them with the equipment and other related things. We chip in with everything in the back end to ensure the best possible support."

Working closely with government, SAI

Rasquinha clarifies that OGQ is not any rival body competing with the Sports Authority of India or government scheme, TOPS.

"We work very closely with SAI and TOPS, and anything else that the athletes require, we take care of so that there is no overlapping. For example, wrestler Bajrang Punia has been having a personal coach in Emzarios Bentinidis, a three-time Olympian. We pay his salary. We also have a full-time physio for Bajrang because for a contact sport like wrestling, you need a physio to help you recover every single day. We have spent just Rs 70 lakh per annum just on Bajrang. There are also additional expenses like when he went to Georgia for over a month of training before Asian Games. These expenses are taken care of by TOPS," Rasquinha says.

Rasquinha makes it clear that OGQ is not competing with any other sports foundation either. He says that the aim of OGQ is to win Olympic gold medals for India and it works closely with other such non-profit organisations besides the government and SAI.

JSW Sports, Lakshya and GoSports Foundation are some of the others that support athletes in the nation's quest for Olympic glory. Rasquinha says: "It is important for all organisations working in Olympic sport to come together to help India win more medals at the Olympics."

Support in every possible way

While OGQ steps in to provide individual trainers, physios and other support staff like nutritionist, mental trainers and the like essential for sportspersons' progress, it also does the administrative work.

Rasquinha says: "Bajrang and Vinesh should not bother about all other things. They should think of training, competition and rest. We can't afford them to run from pillar to post for visas, etc. And, these are just the basics. There are a lot more that we offer. We have a pool of almost 30 physios, trainers, nutritionists, mental trainers working full time with athletes. And, the Indian shooting contingent at the Asian Games has three of OGQ's physios to help out the athletes.

"If Gopichand (badminton chief coach) wants a physio for a tournament, he will call me up. We bridge the gap. We don't claim to support the athlete from A to Z. The government does bulk of the funding. We pitch in wherever possible. One of the biggest challenges is to raise funds in a sustained manner."

Catch them young

It was only after the 2012 Olympic Games that PV Sindhu came into prominence. But, OGQ has identified her talent and started supporting her from 2009 when the shuttler was only 14.

Rasquinha, 37, says: "People think we support only senior athletes, but there are a lot of unknown faces out there. Out of the 150-odd athletes we support now, about 85 of them are in the age group of 10-19 years. These are the most talented young kids in the country, we support them with a viewpoint of them participating in 2024 and 2028 Olympics.

"When Sindhu was 14, we sent her for five international tournaments, spending Rs 15 lakhs on her. At that time, we believed in her, and along with Gopi, we said international exposure was most important for her. We supported when she had no support and it was the most crucial phase for her," Rasquinha remembers.

In her own words, Sindhu has said: "The exposure OGQ gave me at age 14 to play in international tournaments went a long way in preparing me for the intense level of competition in world badminton."

Saurabh Chaudhury, the 16-year-old Asian Games gold medallist in 10m air pistol on Tuesday, is being supported by OGQ for a year and a half. "And, before that, we have been researching on him for at least for six months to a year. A lot of research goes on in identifying the talent and backing it to the fullest," Rasquinha adds.

At the same time, there is no place in OGQ for non-performance and slackness. "We would have weeded about 50 athletes in nine years, on an average about 5-6 athletes per year," Rasquinha says. "Weeding out is important. In our aim to win Olympic gold medals, we cannot afford people stagnating in performances. We cannot afford lack in progress. To ensure that they are continuously progressing, we have biannual performance report for every single athlete. We send out a strong message for everyone to not take our support for granted. There are other deserving athletes that need support."

Among those weeded out of OGQ are ace badminton doubles players Ashwini Ponnappa, who is still active, and Jwala Gutta in 2016-17.

Emotional support

Rahi Sarnobat, the first Indian woman shooter to win an Asian Games gold in Jakarta on Wednesday, was out of the sport for two years through elbow injury. Through this painful period, OGQ stood by her.

World champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu is missing the Asian Games due to back injury. OGQ is with her through this phase too.

Says the 57-year-old Sethi: "Athletes becomes part of OGQ family. Anything that troubles the athletes, we are there. The team that runs OGQ is emotionally attached and very very close to each of its athletes."

Rasquinha goes into the details: "From my own personal experience as an international hockey player, I can say that athlete needs support most when injured or sick. As is my simple philosophy in life, when an athlete is talented, genuinely needs support, is capable of winning Olympic medal, we have to support that athlete in every possible way. More so when they are sick and injured.

"Rahi had a long-term injury, almost out for two years. Yet we continued to support her. Mirabai Chanu is down with back injury and has been in Mumbai for almost a month seeing the doctor. Vinesh Phogat was going through some injury and she came to us.

"We have a rule in OGQ that if any athlete anywhere in the country has to go to a doctor, he/she will not go alone. One of OGQ's physios or some backroom staff will accompany him/her and make the athlete feel important and special, make him/her believe we will do everything possible to help get better. And, this philosophy is also shared by Geet, Prakash and Anand.

"Building trust with the athletes is very crucial. The athlete should believe in us and trust in our physios, our work ethics. We value each other's time. All this builds trust. That's why I ensure we meet athletes regularly, sleep in the same room as them, eat the same food. That's when they start trusting us and then will we be able to find solutions to their real problems."

The Asian Games performances have only made OGQ's presence stronger. But, it is not going to stop here. In its mission for its athletes to excel, OGQ has already trained its sights on more medals at Tokyo 2020. Rasquinha says: "For the first time, India has done a recce two years before the Tokyo Olympics in terms of the logistics, food, involvement of Indian families in Tokyo etc."

Sethi adds: "We are now looking up to 2028. The youngsters we have now started are now for 2028."

OGQ MEDALLISTS AT 2018 ASIAN GAMES – 11

GOLD

Bajrang Punia (wrestling, men's 65kg freestyle), Vinesh Phogat (wrestling, women's 60kg freestyle), Saurabh Chaudhary (shooting, men's 10m air pistol), Rahi Sarnobat (shooting, women's 25m pistol), Amit Panghal (boxing, men's light fly)

SILVER

Deepak Kumar (shooting, 10m air rifle), PV Sindhu (badminton, women's singles)

BRONZE

Divya Kakran (wrestling, women's fresstyle 68kg), Heena Sidhu (shooting, 10m air pistol), Apurvi Chandela/ Ravi Kumar (shooting, 10m air rifle mixed), Saina Nehwal (badminton, women's singles)

N-ZONE 

156 No. of athletes OGQ is currently supporting and spread across 23 cities in 16 states

9 No. of individual sports that OGQ has embraced for support, including 5 priority disciplines – archery, badminton, boxing, shooting and wrestling

5 No. of Olympic medals out of the 8 India won in 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games have been supported by OGQ

DID YOU KNOW?

Gagan Narang is the first sportsperson to be roped in by OGQ and given full support in 2007. He goes on to become the first medallist for India at the 2012 London Games

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

BAJRANG PUNIA, WRESTLER:

OGQ has been a great support. It has provided me with personal physio and personal coach. It has helped me in all respects. Coming from a simple family, I could not afford to pay for my own coach. Now, OGQ has give me a foreign coach, looks after my doctor, the food supplements, etc. Without OGQ, I could not have made it this far. Am thankful to OGQ and Virenbhai for the support.

PUSARLA RAMANA, PV SINDHU FATHER:

Am so happy that OGQ began to support Sindhu from the age of 12-1/2 – 13 years. It supported her with equipment, things required for fitness, travel, playing tournaments abroad and sponsoring her. That is what exactly is required to gain experience for a youngster. Playing tournaments abroad has given her the exposure at a very early age. This is what is required for sportspersons whose families cannot afford. OGQ supports sportspersons who are really talented, hard working and are ready to use its facilities. It encourages the talented child, monitors performances of the child, gives encouraging words from time to time. As a parent, it is our duty to inform OGQ the ward's progress. I have often been asked by Viren how Sindhu is progressing and if she is in need of anything. OGQ provides Sindhu with personal fitness trainer, physio etc.