Sports Authority of India Plans To Hire Over 300 Sports Science Pros

29 September, New Delhi: In today's governing body meeting, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) presented a strong case for sports science and performance management.

Other decisions made at the meeting, headed by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, included out-of-turn promotions for SAI-employed India internationals following medal-winning performances at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and a continuous drive for corporate financing through CSR projects.

National women's hockey team goalie Savita Punia, who has been elevated from assistant coach to coach, and women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal, who has been promoted to senior coach, are among those who would profit from the out-of-turn promotions.

Piyush Dubey, the hockey coach, has been elevated to senior coach. Mariyappan Thangavelu, a Paralympian high jumper, has been appointed to head coach, while 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," he added.

New positions will be established for strength and conditioning specialists, performance analyzers, biomechanists, psychologists, video analysts, and physiologists.

Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Nisith Pramanik, IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, and former international athletes Bhaichung Bhutia, Akhil Kumar, Trupti Murgunde, and Kamlesh Mehta were among those who attended today's meeting.