One day to go to Olympic Day: Indian Olympians share their Olympic journey in new video

22 | 6 | 2017

The Olympians Association of India (OAI) has been busy in the lead up to Olympic Day, encouraging the country’s Olympians to get engaged with their communities to ensure the Olympic Day message is passed on to future generations of athletes.

One of the OAI’s key projects has seen the organisation collaborate with Open Road India, a documentary series about the lives of people from different communities in India, to produce an inspiring video on the values of Olympism.

The video, launched to coincide with the OAI’s Olympic Day celebrations, shares the stories of seven Olympians who have finished competing, but who continue to contribute to their sport in various ways. In the video, the Olympians talk about their Olympic journey and what the Olympic values mean to them, what their current goals are, as well as sending inspiring messages to youth.

The Olympians featured in the video are:

• Cawas Billimoria – Judo (Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992)
• Anjali Bhagwat – Shooting (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008
• Aparna Popat – Badminton (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004)
• Adille Sumariwalla - Athletics (Moscow 1980)
• Rehan Poncha – Swimming (Beijing 2008)
• Kamlesh Mehta – Table Tennis (Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992)
• Viren Rasquinha – Hockey (Athens 2004)

Several of these Olympians are also involved Olympic Day events around the country. Rehan Poncha will be running a session for children aged 8-18, who aspire to be professional swimmers, while Adille Sumariwalla will be addressing athletes and media at a press conference being held by the Athletics Federation of India to share his Olympic story.

Meanwhile, triple Olympian Gagan Narang, who won bronze at the London 2012 Olympic Games in shooting, is leading a new project called Leap. Leap will bring together young and aspiring competitive shooters from across India who will be mentored by Narang in the hopes some of them will go on to achieve their dreams at a future Games.

Olympic Day – which takes place every year on 23 June - is a day to get active and encourage people to get active and promote the Olympic values.

The WOA would like to share your NOA‘s inspirational Olympic Day stories, events and pictures on our digital and social platforms so please let us know about any planned Olympic Day activities by contacting sarah.vanballekom@thewoa.org.

Olympians are also encouraged to engage on social media using the hashtag #OlympicDay.