When Tejaswin Shankar’s first American scholarship provide got here to play within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), he was in disbelief. “I assumed it was some form of rip-off. Somebody is taking you, educating, maintaining, and every thing totally free,’ (your journey, training and keep are all free). Me Thought it was some form of kidnapping racket,” he informed The Indian Express earlier this month.
Later, as he realized he can be a part of a system of over 500 faculties, every of which makes a speciality of a unique sport, within the prime collegiate competitors on the planet, he has change into an advocate of it.
“If it’s free and we will use it, then why do we rely on the federal government to spend crores of rupees on sports activities finances? Trust your athletes to return again house and carry out at a excessive degree.
Tejaswin’s punishment has paid off. The 23-year-old excessive jumper’s bronze on the current Commonwealth Games was one in every of 45 medals received in observe and subject alone by athletes coming via the NCAA system. 21 of them have been gold medals in numerous occasions like dash, marathon, discus throw and triple soar. Medalists come from all around the world, from Africa and the Caribbean, in addition to from the UK and Australia.
Somdev Devvarman. (FILE)
Today, American schools are stuffed with worldwide student-athletes who’re having nice success. At this 12 months’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, 15 champions got here from international locations exterior the United States, together with Tunisia, St. Lucia, Morocco and Zimbabwe.
Tejaswin was a kind of 15 champions. The excessive jumper is a six-time All-American athlete and in 2018 set an Indian nationwide report of two.29m whereas competing for Kansas State University. At Hayward Field, he turned solely the second Indian, together with Somdev Devvarman, to win two NCAA championships. ,
Devvarman himself is one in every of solely 13 gamers to have received consecutive Division 1 tennis titles at that degree, the second of which earned him a 44–1 win-loss report. Less than a 12 months later, he turned the primary Indian since Leander Paes to achieve the ultimate of an ATP occasion on the Chennai Open, the place he entered the principle draw as a wildcard.
Tejaswin studied enterprise administration at Kansas State University on a four-year scholarship. (file)
Devvarman is one other advocate of younger Indians taking the American scholarship route. However, he clarifies that the game he performs have to be taken into consideration: observe and subject, golf, tennis and swimming are all at a particular degree within the NCAA, however sports activities equivalent to badminton or desk tennis should not.
The former Top 70 participant informed The Indian Express that there are issues he realized and realized with out going via the system – on and off the courtroom – with out which he was unlikely to change into the participant he turned.
“I believe an enormous query any athlete or individual on the whole ought to ask themselves is ‘What are your parameters for achievement?’ Do you outline success solely as successful medals or trophies? Because I can be sincere, I did not see it that means,” he mentioned.
“I joined the University of Virginia back in 2004, a top Division 1 program under the NCAA. But I wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to become a professional player. All that mattered to me was the freedom to play. That’s it. To do what I knew best. And over there, with the structure and organization they gave me from the mighty coaches to take care of my nurturing, I felt like I had that freedom,” he mentioned.
On his option to the NCAA title in 2007, Devvarman defeated future two-time Grand Slam finalist Kevin Anderson within the semifinals, after which future top-10 participant and US No. 1 John Isner within the last. He believes that the publicity he obtained to educate and compete with a number of the finest younger gamers on the planet was essential to his growth.
“At the 2006 US Open, Andre Agassi, in the last match of his career, lost in the third round to Benjamin Baker (of Germany). In my first year here, Baker won the NCAA title with Baylor (University). I remember That I saw that match and thought: ‘If he can do it, so can we.'”
He mentioned that success breeds success, and there have been loads of success tales to be discovered within the NCAA, he mentioned.
breeding floor for medalists
The observe report of athletes who’ve come via the NCAA system, particularly internationals who usually play on scholarship, justifies Devvarman’s concept.
Tejaswin and he aren’t the one high-profile athletes to go the NCAA’s means. In the late Nineteen Sixties, triple jumper Mohinder Singh Gill went via this technique earlier than successful Commonwealth and Asian Games medals. Discus thrower Vikas Gowda was the 2004 NCAA champion, and 10 years later, received Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow. And at the moment, athletes in numerous disciplines are collaborating.
But Devvarman believes that extra Indians eligible for scholarships ought to make the most of the framework that the NCAA can present. “For any athlete, the toughest soar goes from a profitable junior profession to the professionals. There’s an enormous soar within the center. That interval normally happens after they’re in college between the ages of 18 and 22. Consistently It is essential to play and deal with your physique at the moment,” he mentioned.
Devvarman introduced his retirement from touring in 2017, and whereas many could now affiliate him with broadcasting, he had a quick stint as a coach in Germany, the place he noticed promising younger Indians equivalent to Sumit Nagal and Karman Kaur Thandi. labored with whom they thought they might. He has benefited from the help he obtained at that age.
“They (Karman and Sumit) are battling with accidents. I bear in mind going via that part. But in Virginia, I had devoted coaching rooms, I may get scans, the suitable rehabilitation course of, the suitable recommendation, the suitable coaching regime.
“Frankly speaking it can be quite difficult in India. The whole ecosystem doesn’t exist, and if you want to build it, you have to pay exorbitant costs,” mentioned the previous tennis participant.
An athlete’s profession is brief, he says, and in his developmental years, he’s an incurable damage away from failing to achieve the heights he can afford. In these years, having a help system will be necessary.
“I wish more people had made better decisions. And more importantly, I want more people to know about their options,” Devvarman mentioned.
Discus thrower Vikas Gowda was the 2004 NCAA champion, and 10 years later, received Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow. And at the moment, athletes in numerous disciplines are collaborating.
For all the apparent alternatives the NCAA can present scholarships, nonetheless, the dearth of entry is a problem.
There are numerous departments within the system, and getting top-tier Division 1 scholarships includes cut-throat competitors not solely on the sector, but additionally academically. Most faculties have eligibility standards for his or her scholarships, which embrace aggressive examination scores in addition to minimal cut-off scores in any respect ranges of senior education. This requires a sure degree of educational inclination and command over the English language, which a nationwide junior champion who doesn’t come from a privileged background could not have.
There are additionally monetary constraints. Schools on the prime of the aggressive curve are prone to provide one hundred pc scholarships solely to high-level recruits, and that is much more uncommon for worldwide college students. Therefore, if monetary assist is the first concern, a student-athlete could have to decide on a decrease faculty, which will be detrimental to their growth, to make sure that their training and coaching doesn’t come at a really excessive value. .
Tejaswin’s case additionally highlights the apprehension of Indian sports activities our bodies. The Delhi athlete was withdrawn by the Athletics Federation of India for the 2019 Asian Championships after lacking out on the Federation Cup after failing to acknowledge his leads to the US. Ahead of the Commonwealth Games this 12 months, historical past was about to repeat itself, barring last-minute courtroom intervention.
Devvarman places these hurdles in perspective earlier than advising younger athletes to observe the identical path as him. He mentioned that, in his expertise, the main target on the NCAA is on growing well-rounded athletes who’ve worth past the game.
“It depends on what your priorities are. A lot of the student-athletes I trained with realized they couldn’t, or didn’t want to, make it to the top. They did other things in life.” A fantastic training opened the doorways for him. But if successful medals and competing on the prime is the precedence, and 100 per cent scholarship shouldn’t be on the desk, then these items have to be saved in thoughts,” he mentioned.
Track and subject in Commonwealth Games 2022:
A complete of 45 medals have been received by athletes produced by the NCAA system. Of these, 21 have been gold medals.
Top Countries to Benefit:
Nigeria – 10 medals, 5 gold
Jamaica – 8 medals, 2 gold
Trinidad – 5 medals, 4 gold
Canada – 3 medals, 3 gold
Australia – 3 medals, 2 gold
Tejaswin Shankar of India received the bronze medal within the males’s excessive soar.
Full cease: At CWG 2022 observe and subject, medals received by athletes who’ve come via the NCAA
| Country | Sleep | gross |
| Ghana | 0 | 2 |
| Nigeria | 5 | 10 |
| Saint Lucia | 0 | 1 |
| England | 2 | 3 |
| Jamaica | 2 | 8 |
| barbados | 1 | 2 |
| Trinidad | 4 | 5 |
| Australia | 2 | 3 |
| Bahamas | 1 | 2 |
| Bermuda | 0 | 1 |
| Granada | 1 | 2 |
| Canada | 3 | 3 |
| Scotland | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 1 |
| India | 0 | 1 |
| gross | 21 | 45 |
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
