Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Games Kraft, GoSports Foundation Join Hands To Support Para Athletes

April 18, 2023
Para Sports
Happy faces: India returned with a record haul of medals from the Tokyo Paralympic Games(Photos: PARALYMPICINDIA.ORG.IN)

Gameskraft Foundation, the social arm of the leading online skill-based gaming company Gameskraft, today, announced its partnership supporting the ‘Para Champions Programme’ by the GoSports Foundation. As their ‘Associate Partner’ for the programme, Gameskraft Foundation is empowering 45 para-athletes in their sporting journeys.

The Para Champions Programme was conceptualised in 2015 by the GoSports Foundation, to empower Indian para-athletes in their Paralympic journeys and beyond. The larger objective of the programme is to use sports excellence as a vehicle to create national role models who can impact the prevailing sentiment about general persons with disabilities.

Since its inception in 2015, the Para Champions Programme has provided a holistic support system comprising an annual scholarship, access to sports science expertise, support in procuring apparel, equipment and gear, financing travel and accommodation expenses during competitions, and
high-performance training for a carefully selected cohort of the most talented emerging para-athletes in the country.

At the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, 21 athletes accounting for 40% of the Indian contingent were supported by the programme, out of which, seven athletes clinched eight medals. These athletes returned to the country as national role models and have added further impetus to the national para-sport movement.

Speaking about the association, Rishi Wadhera, Head of Corporate Communications and CSR, Gameskraft, said “It is an honour to partner with the GoSports Foundation to support
various athletes from their Para Champions Programme. Sports is a profession that needs focused preparation, along with the right willpower and mental strength, more so for para-athletes. It is our pleasure to stand with these champions in their journey of breaking barriers and supporting them in flying high and raising India’s name and mark across the world.”

Deepthi Bopaiah, CEO, GoSports Foundation, said “We are delighted to welcome Gameskraft Foundation as an ‘Associate Partner’ to the Para Champions Programme. We would like to express our gratitude to the Gameskraft Foundation team for believing in the programme’s tenets and joining IndusInd Bank and AT&T, two pioneers of supporting para sport through corporate CSR, as partners to the programme. Through partnerships like this, I believe we can help create a more inclusive ecosystem for para-athletes and impact the prevailing perception of the persons with disabilities community in the country.”