Forty-one athletes, 15 corporate leaders, 10 policy makers and federation presidents. Across 24 sessions. The scale was humongous. And to be able to pull it off and on time, with every athlete telling us it was an event they absolutely loved – can there be a bigger satisfaction than that?
We at RevSportz worked six months for the conclave. Non-stop. Putting it all together. And our team of 41 did not sleep for days leading up to it. Today, I write for them. I write to celebrate each of them and the success of the event. Well done each of you.
My three key takeaways from the conclave:
Athletes loved it. They have all come and told us how much it made a difference. Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanka Sadangi, for example, said on stage how much it benefitted them to listen to Abhinav Bindra and the other legends.
For athletes to directly speak to government policy makers – Vineel Krishna, secretary sports, government of Odisha, shared the dais with athletes – made room for meaningful dialogue. How the state could make further differences and help them on the road to sporting excellence was discussed at length.
Secondly, as Adille Sumariwalla said, all we need is 30 corporates to spend 0.5 percent of their CSR funds for sport and we will have more money than our national sports budget. In the presence of the country’s leading corporates, it was a fascinating discussion on what can be the way ahead.
Thirdly, we live in a social media age, and athletes are incessantly trolled if they fail. How do they deal with social media, which is a necessary evil of sorts? Sania Mirza and Nikhat Zareen were brilliant with their answers. Zareen will go off social media ahead of Paris and Mirza was scathing: “Think? Why would someone use such words of abuse? Now sad is their life?” Very very Sania.
Each of them inspire. Each of them make a difference. Each has a story. We can keep writing pages from what we learnt from the conclave. But deep down, there is a resolve. Murali Sreeshankar, Esha Singh, Sift, Shriyanka, and Anush Agarwalla are examples of the new resolve. That’s why Nikhat can say she wants to be the first woman gold medallist for india at the Olympics. That’s why Neeraj Chopra, the greatest, can say he will be the best prepared for Paris. That’s why Abhinav can say the best way to deal with pressure is to accept it. And finally, that’s why Sourav Ganguly can say if you do it day in and day out, every single day, no power can stop you from winning.
As a team, we delivered. We will celebrate today, but then in sport, it is every day. We will continue in our journey of storytelling. With renewed energy and renewed resolve. Thank you, everyone, for making Trailblazers 2.0 the biggest and best sports conclave.