My guest is Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian hockey team, an Olympian and CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. During his playing career, Viren has represented India in 180 international matches including competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is an Arjuna Awardee and has been a member of the PMO Task Force in 2016 (along with Pullela Gopichand, Abhinav Bindra and others) that prepared India’s plans for the next three Olympics in 2020 (now in 2021), 2024 and 2028.

In today’s conversation we speak of dreams so big that they consume your entire childhood, and you follow them faithfully into later years. Dreams that make an impact on an entire nation and inspire generations of young children to pursue sport and compete at the highest level, the Olympics. We cover the grueling hours of practice that athletes endure day after day, far from the watchful eyes of fans. We flit back and forth between history and the present day so bear with us. We speak of the lessons that sport teaches you, the role of a coach, structural changes required in India’s outlook toward sport and how the Olympic Gold Quest is fueling a dream in over 300 athletes. It’s all about those 6gms of gold.

Contribute: Olympic Gold Quest

Lessons from the Special Forces

Tell it like it isBy Manisha KadagathurMay 18, 2020