With 'India For Sports', you can build future Olympic champions

Four individuals with a common goal have joined hands to make India a sporting powerhouse. Driven by passion for sports, these four have embarked on a new mission which has not been heard of in the country.

The quartet of Apurv Jaiswal, Mayank Madan, Abhinav Srivastava and Harendra Bisht, all aged 28, have launched "India For Sports" (IFS), a crowd-funding project for athletes (non-cricket).

Through this platform they aim to collect funds and help athletes achieve their dreams of winning medals at the international stage.

"Indian athletes often do not have access to world class resources for training and preparation. India For Sports aims to provide Indian athletes with a level playing field when they compete at international events with the help of necessary funds and support," they say.

2012 Olympic silver medal winning wrestler Sushil Kumar has congratulated IFS and asked people to come forward and support.

Watch Sushil's message here

"I congratulate India For Sports and I request all the people to come forward and support so that they can help Indian athletes. You can serve the country in a different way through this. I appreciate the work that India For Sports is doing for our country and our athletes," he said.

IFS, is the brainchild of Apurv, who in January this year began work on this new venture. He sought the help of three of his friends and they readily obliged.

Apurv's dream of launching "India For Sports" was realised on August 15, 2014 and they have already signed up 10 athletes. He aims to see India as a top performing sporting nation and wants to inculcate a sporting culture in the country.

"With India For Sports, we aim to make India a sporting powerhouse. We are the first ever crowd-funding platform in India," says Mayank, one of the founders.

With IFS, every Indian citizen gets a chance to play a part in shaping the careers of the athletes. They can help make a future champion. Each contributor can claim - "I am a proud sponsor of Indian athlete", a contribution perk offered by IFS.

"For each athlete we will run a campaign. We are not for profit organisation and completely transparent. All the donations are published on our website," Mayank said.

According to him, the start has been "awesome" and they have till now managed to raise funds of Rs 2 lakhs in very short time. So far, they have collected more than Rs 80,000 for Commonwealth Games 2014 bronze medal winning triple jumper Arpinder Singh. He is also the current national record holder.

"We are running four campaigns at the moment and one of them is for Arpinder. We have already raised funds for him and are helping in his training," Mayank added.

The organisation, based in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, targets to prepare athletes for 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. And by 2024 Olympics they want to achieve something big.

Each athlete under IFS will not receive money directly. The organisation will provide them with the necessary equipment or help them get to foreign destinations for training and also get to train under best coaches.

Contributions are accepted from Rs 100, according to IFS. Now, they are in the process of raising money for Arpinder, Asian Games 2014 bronze medallist Inderjeet Singh (shot put), Commonwealth Games 2014 silver medallist Sharath Kamal (table tennis) and Amit Dahiya (wrestling).

Athletes signed by India For Sports

1. Inderjeet Singh (Shot Put) - Asian Games 2014 Bronze Medalist
2. Arpinder Singh (Triple Jump) - Bronze Medalist Commonwealth Games 2014
3. Amit Dahiya (Wrestling) Gold CWG14
4. Sharath Kamal (Table Tennis) Silver CWG14
5. Soumyajit Ghosh (Table Tennis)
6. Harmeet Desai (Table Tennis)
7. Sanil Shetty (Table Tennis)
8. Bajrang Kumar (Wrestling)
9. Sandeep Yadav (Wrestling)
10. Yogesh (Wrestling)

What does India For Sports do?

1. Raise funds for the Indian athletes through fund raiser campaigns. We recognise talented Indian athletes who have good potential of winning big in international events but are struggling because of fundamental issues including lack of funding.
2. Give Indian athletes the stage and visibility - showcase their life story, struggle and achievements. The deplorable condition of Indian sports also arises because of the apathy and indifference of our media. We make sure our athletes get enough visibility through our athletes page on our website.
3. Arrange mental conditioning sessions and performance enhancement sessions for the athletes in addition to providing them with the services of nutritionists, dietitians and psychotherapists.

How to get in touch with them