SAI to hire over 300 sports science pros

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 28

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) made a big pitch for sports science and performance management in its governing body meeting here today.

Out-of-turn promotions to SAI-employed India internationals following medal-winning performances at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and a continued push to get corporate funding through CSR initiatives were some of the other decisions taken at the meeting, chaired by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

Those who will benefit from the out-of-turn promotions include national women’s hockey team goalkeeper Savita Punia, who has been promoted from assistant coach to coach, and women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal, who has been promoted to senior coach. Also, hockey coach Piyush Dubey has been promoted to senior coach. Similarly, Paralympian high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu has been elevated to chief coach and Sharad Kumar has been promoted from assistant coach to coach.

“Our emphasis is on sports science and performance management and with the restructuring SAI will hire around 300 more scientific staff, including 138 high performance analysts, 23 high performance directors, 23 sports medicine doctors, 93 physiotherapists and 104 masseurs,” Thakur said. “We have further created posts for 50 high performance coaches at the NCOEs for targeted performance at international events, especially the Olympics.”

New posts for strength and conditioning experts, performance analysts, biomechanists, psychologists, video analysts and physiologists will also be created.

Among those who attended today’s meeting were Minister of State (Youth Affairs & Sports) Nisith Pramanik, IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta, and former international sportspersons Bhaichung Bhutia, Akhil Kumar, Trupti Murgunde and Kamlesh Mehta.