Mission 2032: JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sports launches elite swimming programme with Mizuho Bank

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of ‘when’,” said Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) founder Parth Jindal while talking about the prospects of India winning an Olympic medal in swimming.

He was speaking on the occasion of announcing an agreement with Japan's Mizuho Bank to start a swimming programme at the IIS in Bellary, Karnataka, on Wednesday.

"When we started the IIS in 2017, we didn't even imagine that it would lead an Olympic gold, that too in a sport like javelin. So, if we do our jobs well, we will definitely have swimmers with A-category qualification in 2032, if not 2028," Jindal said.

Swimming is the second biggest medal event at the Olympics with as many as 37 gold medals up for grabs at the upcoming Paris Games. But Indian swimmers never come close to reaching the final rounds, let alone winning a medal.

With a vision to change that, the IIS had last year added two state-of-the-art open-air swimming pools to their 42-acre facility, that also houses a high-performance centre among other departments. The IIS is known for helping athletes like Neeraj Chopra, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia win Olympic medals.
Currently, around 30 swimmers of different age groups are part of the Mizuho High Performance Swimming Programme.

Results in any sports programme come after a few years, requiring patients from the supporters. “In our experience, it takes about 8 to 10 years to develop a programme,” said IIS CEO Rushdee Warley, who has previously worked with South Africa Swimming and New Zealand Swimming.

Mizuho understands that, said Piyush Agarwal, senior managing director & head - corporate & institutional banking (India).

“We are in it for the long term,” Agarwal said.

“Our fundamental approach to all our activities is to operate responsibly. We are honoured to partner with IIS, who were our partner of choice for the first ever Sports CSR investment in India as we share their vision of developing and nurturing Indian talent to succeed in the world of international sports.

“As one of the youngest nations in the world with about 60% population being under the age of 28, we believe that India should claim its rightful place on the podium in this aspect too,” he added.

Talented young swimmers Maana Patel, Kushagra Rawat, Ishaan Mehra, Astha Choudhury, Ashmitha Chandra and Bikram Changmai are among those who will be benefitting from this partnership.