Trailblazers 2.0 is already emerging as India’s biggest, most diverse and most inclusive sports conclave in the year of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It would be natural to expect the stunning array of panelists across the entire spectrum of the sports ecosystem to tickle the grey cells of those listening to them as they share their experiences, their learning and their vision.
The eclectic group includes superb achievers, including athletes with disabilities, female athletes, sportspersons with rich experience behind them and others who are beginning to make a mark on the international stage, officials who work tirelessly behind the scenes, corporate leaders, visionary officials of State Governments and many keen observers of Indian sport.
The assembly of achievers and thought-leaders is testimony to the credibility of what is inarguably India’s leading digital destination for original sports content across disciplines. It is also reflective of RevSportz’s desire to make positive contributions to what is already an amazing Indian sports story, one of a range of aspiration and growth.
The entire gamut of emotions that athletes feel when training or competing will echo in the ITC Royal Bengal over two days when Trailblazers 2.0 holds centrestage. Indian sports’ largest stakeholders will share their experiences and learnings, their own vision of contemporary scene and the future, the challenges and the opportunities.
Indeed, Trailblazers 2.0 will take a 360o look at Indian sport and the trajectory of its growth on a journey that aims to host the 2036 Olympic Games along the way. It will not only track the story so far but envision the way ahead, one that places the athlete welfare at the centre of the universe while empowering athletes to pursue excellence.
From examining athlete welfare to assessing India’s training facilities, from hearing corporates speak about the evolution of Indian sport and the nature of support to appreciating the efforts by states like Odisha, from trying to understand the impact of social media on young athletes to looking at how athletes can plan for careers beyond sport, the Conclave will traverse the entire path.
India’s first individual Olympic champion, Abhinav Bindra holds a place in every Indian heart. And, one of the most charismatic leaders of the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly, the affable chess legend Viswanathan Anand, the charismatic badminton guru Pullela Gopichand and tennis legends Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza are pioneers from the upper echelons of Indian sport.
35 athletes under one roof at the Revsportz #TrailblazersConclave2!
Legends like Saurav Ganguly, Saurav Ghosal, Abhinav Bindra, Harmanpreet Singh, PR Sreejesh, Vishy Anand, Pullela Gopichand and more from various sports and para sports will grace Day 1 of our conclave.
Here’s a… pic.twitter.com/szSST3ANTn
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The exciting breed of contemporary athletes is led by Neeraj Chopra, India’s first Olympic gold medalist in athletics. Of course, he will be joining virtually from his training base in Europe. His session with Abhinav Bindra will draw the greatest attention simply because it uniquely features India’s two individual Olympic champions.
Hockey stars Harmanpreet Singh, Savita Punia and PR Sreejesh come with vast experience while badminton duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and world champion boxer Nikhat Zareen bridge their generation gap with youngsters like shooters Sift Kaur Samra and Esha Singh and dressage rider Anush Agarwalla.
Sumit Antil, who has shown that he can compete with able-bodied javelin throwers without holding himself back, as well as badminton stars Mansi Joshi, Pramod Bhagat and Krishna Nagar and their coach Gaurav Khanna are as good representatives of Para Sport as any.
The voice of the support system will be heard through corporate leaders and visionary officials of Government while sports administrators will be well represented by the likes of Adille J Sumariwalla, Kalyan Chaubey and Rahul Bose. Indeed, the Conclave will view Indian sport from many different prisms and understand each perspective.
The simple idea behind inviting such a galaxy to be under one roof is to get a deeper inside-out understanding of the Indian sports ecosystem. And to come up with a set of findings and suggestions for India to embrace as it attempts a slingshot to guiding its demographic quotient to be among the world’s leading sports nations in the next decade or so.
You can be sure that there will be some more brainstorming on the sidelines of the Conclave, in breakaway sessions where the athletes, present and past, express themselves selflessly and contribute to ushering in the necessary changes in the Indian sporting landscape. From that perspective alone, Trailblazers 2.0 can be an amazing gamechanger.
