What athletes want: American college education to prop up their sport | Sport-others News

Selva Prabhu was in his teens when he left home in Madurai to chase his track and field dreams. It’s now taken him all the way to Manhattan, the Kansas town of a population just over 54,000 and nicknamed ‘Little Apple’.On January 14, the 20-year-old joined Kansas State University. It’s a chance for the English literature graduate to complete higher education. More crucially, in an Olympic cycle that culminates with the Games in Los Angeles, the former Junior World Championship silver medall has secured a spot in the American college sports system, the NCAA.
It’s a less-trodden path for an Indian athlete. Yet, those who stitched together Prabhu’s move are hoping that others, like the triple jumper, will take the leap. “We are in talks with people. Like Selva, we’re sending a lot of our track and field athletes abroad,” said former India tennis player Manisha Malhotra, who is the president of Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS).
For years, the NCAA has remained the gold standard as far as college sports structures go. At last year’s Paris Olympics, it produced more gold medalls (127) than the USA and China combined. The champions belong not just to the US — from French hero Leon Marchand to the track trailblazer from St Lucia, Julien Alfred, 11 other countries, too, benefited from the programme. Beyond the medalls, there were NCAA representatives in the contingents of 125 countries.
Indian athletes, like high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, have taken the NCAA route to the Olympics. But Malhotra said they are now trying to make a more concerted effort in other sports as well, with wrestling being one of the priorities.
“Because of the LA Games, USA Wrestling has made it a priority sport and Division One Wrestling is one of the biggest pathways. Almost all universities now have it,” said Malhotra, who has been a key figure in the support team of India’s two individual gold medalls, Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra.
“Even Bajrang (Punia) was going to Michigan State for training. Before, it used to be only in the Midwest belt of Iowa and others, but now it’s countrywide,” Malhotra added. “We need to explore the possibility of Indian wrestlers to be able to go and study there, and also train. I have had talks with UWW (United World Wrestling) to figure out if a plan can be worked out for our athletes.”
The sprawling IIS facility in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, has been a nurturing ground for many of India’s top athletes. Malhotra says they are now looking to prepare them for the dual demands of the NCAA as well as guiding them through the requirements.
English classes, for instance, are mandatory for the hundreds of junior and senior athletes who train at the centre and ‘as part of their studies, they have the option to take the TOEFL examinations as well.’
“Education for us is a huge push now. I am really of the belief that athletes, if they haven’t focussed on education, are open to being manipulated various people in the ecosystem which then doesn’t get them anywhere,” Malhotra said.
Erica Wiebe, the Canadian wrestler who won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics, held a masterclass at the IIS earlier this week. On the sidelines, she too stressed on the need to balance athletic ambitions with academics.
”In Canada, we have university and wrestling built in together so that provides a great balance,” Weibe, who completed her MBA before the Tokyo Olympics, said. “Having an identity beyond wrestling becomes a source of strength.”
Striking a balance between their sporting and education careers might still be a struggle, but a research The Indian Express after the Asian Games in 2023 found that among the country’s medal winners, out of the 232 athletes aged 20 and above, 135 were college graduates while 21 had completed their post-graduation.
Among the younger generation, athletes don’t seem content only with degrees; they are obsessed with high percentages, too.
Nikita scored 92.6 per cent in Class 12. (Special arrangement)
Take the case of under-23 Asian bronze medall wrestler Nitika. Currently a political science student from Delhi University, she scored 92.6 per cent in Class 12. “It’s average,” she smiled. “In our college, the highest was 98 per cent.” In the wrestling circles, though, she is now a go-to person when the team travels abroad — be it conversing with athletes and officials or filling out forms.
“I became a better student because of wrestling, it made me more alert and helped me focus for longer periods,” Nitika, 22, said. “And education helped me improve my wrestling because it opened my world to concepts that I couldn’t have learnt only on the mat. It’s helped me develop a personality outside the sport, too.”
For Nitika, the American collegiate dream might not be immediately on the horizon. Others, though, are making their moves. Like Prabhu, who has vaulted from Madurai to Manhattan.