Courses designed to secure sports careers for 100s: V-C

New Delhi: While the Delhi Sports University will take another two to three years to be fully functional, its vice-chancellor Karnam Malleswari plans to have courses that will help students branch out in various sports-related fields.

It has been a little over a month since Malleswari, 2000 Olympics bronze medal winner in weightlifting, was appointed as the V-C of the varsity. She has been functioning out of a temporary office in the Thyagraj Stadium.

"We plan to have 2000 students in the varsity — 1000 male students and 1000 female students," she told in an interview.

"All of them won't reach the Olympics. Some will reach nationals, some internationals but only selected athletes will reach the Olympics. So for the remaining students, we need to have such courses that will help them in their future course."

Malleswari, the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, said the varsity could have courses in sports medicine, sports training, sports management which will help the students in their future endeavours.

Asked what drew her to the concept of the varsity and why she agreed to come on board, she said, "I was told sports will be given more importance. I read their Act. It's my dream to work at the grassroots level and I felt this would help me fulfill my dream.

"If any child reaches the national camp, they get every kind of support but at the grassroots level, there is an issue."

Elaborating further, she said that sportspersons struggled a lot before they reached the national level and that is the reason "we are not getting medals in Olympics".

"See the examples of China and Russia. In weightlifting, they will have at least 15 children for each of the categories and there will be minor differences between them. Some of them would be playing in the Asian Championships, some in other events," she said.

Significantly, while reviewing the course development and progress of the Delhi Sports University, he had said in June, "The Delhi Sports University shall be a unique institution in the world of sports, and shall confer degrees up to the PhD level. Till now, irrespective of the accolades they win in sports, sportspersons need to choose another discipline to get an academic degree. Otherwise, applying for a job becomes difficult.

"Now, sportspersons will not need a degree in any other discipline. They shall be conferred degrees based on their sporting performance. A team of the university shall decide on the course structures, after due consideration of various sports."

But of course, both Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy have publicly said that the goal of the varsity is to create a pool of Olympics-ready athletes.