Humans of Olympics: Ex-tennis player who is trying to take more Indian athletes to the Olympics | Olympics

Boxer Nikhat Zareen, badminton doubles pair of Chirag-Satwik and Lakshya Sen, who finished fourth in badminton singles, are among the 13 athletes in Paris supported by the GoSports Foundation, which was started by former tennis player Deepthi Bopaiah. Bopaiah, CEO of the GoSports Foundation, reached Paris the night before the opening ceremony and got busy almost immediately hopping from one venue to the next to watch and cheer on Indian athletes, especially the ones affiliated to the GoSports Foundation.

While Sen came agonisingly close to a medal while the rest made some progress into their respective contests, Bopaiah is working hard to bring in new sports and help more athletes to qualify for the Olympics and other marquee events in the future.

Bopaiah’s GoSports was instrumental in pairing Chirag Shetty with Satwiksairaj Rankireddyy as both of them were playing with different doubles partners at the time of signing up.

“Pullela Gopichand sat us down and said doubles is where doubles can make a big difference in tournaments such as Thomas Cup and Olympics where we could win as India,” said Bopaiah.

GoSPorts supports athletes across various disciplines and they have athletes from sailing, shooting, athletics, and table tennis on their roster too. “We work with a wide range of sports. We have physios and coaches who work closely with the athletes and ensure that all their basic needs from sports psychologist to nutritionists… everything that is required to get the athlete to be the best versions of themselves is there,” she said.

Bopaiah’s aim is to create role models for the people of India and a medal in Paris would be a great outcome. But more important than that is the effort each and every Olympics athlete has put in.

“The journey, the effort and the enormity of the path taken has to be celebrated as well. We have Rahul David and Gopichand on our board and they constantly tell us it is about the journey and not just the outcome. If you put in the correct process and systems in place the outcome is bound to follow. That’s how we see our journey in sports,” she says.